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In the Canadian province of Quebec, a study of more than 26,000 trees across an area the size of Spain forecasts potential winners and losers in a changing climate.

The study, published today in the journal Science, shows that boreal forests in far-northern latitudes may one day act as a climate refuge for black spruce, the foundational tree for the northwoods ecosystem - a major source of the world's paper; home to caribou, snowshoe hare, lynx, and sable; and nesting site for dozens of migratory bird species.

Amsterdam, The Netherlands, June 16, 2016 - The first study that shows that overweight in late adolescence in men is a significant risk factor for developing severe liver disease later in life has been published in the Journal of Hepatology. Contributing to the strength of this research are the large group of men studied (close to 45,000), very long follow-up time (nearly 40 years), and the high percentage of individuals who remained in the study (1% loss to follow-up).

A new procedure developed at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) may revolutionize the culturing of adult stem cells. In their report that has been published online prior to its appearance in the August 6 issue of Cell Stem Cell, the team describes generating and expanding airway stem cells from the sorts of tissue samples collected during routine treatment of lung disorders. The overall approach appears applicable to several other tissue types, including skin and the linings of the gastrointestinal and reproductive tracts.

Sugar in the form of blood glucose provides essential energy for cells. When its usual dietary source -- carbohydrates -- is scarce, the liver can produce it with the aid of fat. But new research from Johns Hopkins now adds to evidence that other tissues can step in to make glucose when the liver's ability is impaired, and that the breakdown of fats in the liver is essential to protect it from a lethal onslaught of fat.

Return on investment in county public health departments in California exceeds return on investment in many other areas of medical care, according to a new study by a University of California, Berkeley economist.

In summer 2011, University of Colorado Cancer Center investigators Joaquín Espinosa, PhD, and Matthew Galbraith, PhD, taught a summer symposium on gene expression at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in Long Island, New York. As part of the three-week course, one of their students, Joel Perrez-Perri from Dr. Pablo Wappner's lab at the Instituto Leloir in Buenos Aires, Argentina, presented data from experiments on fruit flies describing the role of the histone acetyl-transferase TIP60 (aka KAT5) in regulating the expression of genes controlled by a protein known as HIF1A.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins report that a type of lab-grown human nerve cells can partner with heart muscle cells to stimulate contractions. Because the heart-thumping nerve cells were derived from induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells that in turn were made from human skin cells, the researchers believe the cells -- known as sympathetic nerve cells -- will be an aid in studying disorders that affect the nervous system -- that is, scientists will be able to grow nerve cells in the lab that replicate particular patients' diseases.

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease that affects multiple organs. SLE severity is highly variable, and this variability is known to be partially dependent on ancestral background. Notably, African Americans are at a higher risk of developing SLE and suffer from a more severe form of the disease compared with European Americans. In this issue of JCI Insight, Laurence Menard and colleagues at Bristol-Myers Squibb investigated differences in immune cell characteristics that may contribute to SLE severity in African Americans.

Lipodystrophy syndromes are characterized by an abnormal distribution of adipose tissue and metabolic dysfunction. These disorders are rare and the underlying genetic abnormalities that lead to altered fat distribution are not fully known. In this issue of JCI Insight, Abhimanyu Garg and colleagues at UT Southwestern Medical Center identify a genetic mutation that caused atypical lipodystrophy in a single family. Affected individuals had a marked loss of fat from the limbs but excessive accumulation of adipose tissue in the face and neck.

Vocal cords are able to produce a wide range of sound frequencies because of the larynx's ability to stretch vocal cords and the cords' molecular composition - according to a new paper published in PLOS Computational Biology. Scientists, led by Ingo Titze at the University of Utah, show how these two characteristics of various species' larynxes can closely predict the range of frequencies each species can produce. The results reveal the evolutionary roots of how and why voice arose.

Radiation therapy is commonly used to reduce tumor size and improve symptoms of non-small cell lung cancer. While initially beneficial, many patients will eventually relapse with metastatic tumors. Last year, two immunotherapies that improve anti-tumor T cell responses by inhibiting the PD-1 pathway were approved for non-small cell lung carcinoma. However, it is not yet known if combining immunotherapy with traditional radiation therapy will improve outcome for lung cancer patients.

New research suggests that mothers who eat high-fat, high-sugar diets can predispose multiple generations to metabolic problems, even if their offspring consume healthy diets.

WASHINGTON -- What if private companies could obtain some coverage to protect their foreign investments in developing countries against crippling infectious disease outbreaks such as Ebola?

The possible path to offering disease outbreak guarantees is an idea being posed by two global health researchers who suggest that a mechanism for establishing such an instrument could be tied to public health investments.

MADISON, WIS. -- An exhaustive look at how bacteria hold their ground and avoid getting pushed around by their environment shows how dozens of genes aid the essential job of protecting cells from popping when tensions run high.

For centuries, biologists have considered cells the irreducible unit of life, and cells require various types of envelopes to contain the chemical conditions life demands. When cells lose their mechanical properties, they rupture and die, and many antibiotics attack the envelope in order to mechanically destabilize bacterial cells.

The competition is fierce and only the strongest survive the obstacle course within the female reproductive tract. Of the millions of sperm that enter the vagina, only about 10 or so make it to the oocyte or egg, demonstrating how rigorous the natural sperm selection process really is. So how is it possible to select only the best sperm for assisted reproductive technologies such as in vitro fertilization? That's what a researcher at Florida Atlantic University is aiming to do with his microfluidic technology for reproductive medicine.