Biology’s Top 5 of 2024

I’ll begin today’s blog with a quick introduction. I’m a scientist. I did cancer research for nearly ten years at Northwestern University as a research technician and graduate student. For the past decades, I’ve been a biology professor at Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa where I teach genetics, cell biology, immunology, and other courses.

My research now focuses on bacteriophages (phages), viruses that infect bacteria. I also enjoy reading and writing about the integration of science and Christian faith. While I’m new to the Reformed Journal blog, I’m not new to the RJ. I’ve served as co-editor, I’m a book review editor, and have contributed essays in the past.

I’ve been asked to contribute monthly as a “missionary from science.” As such, I’m looking forward to bringing you interesting, weird, and significant advances in science in a way that is accessible for non-scientists. I also hope to explore the intersections between science and faith. 

Since it’s the time of year that we make (and break) resolutions and look back on the previous year, noting how many books we read, how much weight we lost (or gained), what movies we enjoyed most, and more, it seems like a good idea for my first blog post to take a look back and note some of the important, exciting, and/or weird advances in biology over the last year.

My list is undoubtedly biased towards the areas of biology I spend most of my time teaching and studying. The following five advances seem important enough for non-biologists to know about. Here are my top five in no particular order.

• In medicine: The drug lenacapavir, injected twice a year, provided 100% protection from HIV infection for more than 2000 female participants in South Africa and Uganda. Lenacapavir works differently than most drugs used against HIV infections. First, this is a preventative. Second, rather than interfering with replication of the virus directly, lenacapavir attaches to the viral capsid—the protein coat around the virus’ genetic material—and alters its shape, stiffens it and prevents the virus from entering the nucleus of the host cell where it replicates. Other studies are underway with male participants and to see if a single lenacapavir injection will offer protection for a full year.

• In genetics and biochemistry: Scientists used genome-wide association studies (GWAS), proteomics, and artificial intelligence to identify seven proteins (TREM2, PILRB, PILRA, EPHA1, CD33, RET, and CD55) associated with risk for Alzheimer disease. When the genes encoding these proteins carry mutations, the mutant proteins have alterations in their predicted shapes/structure. Scientists hope that these findings will help uncover how Alzheimer disease develops, who is most at risk, and identify potential drug targets for Alzheimer’s disease.

• In evolutionary biology: Scientists have recovered the oldest known Homo sapiens DNA from human remains in Ranis, Germany. They sequenced DNA from 13 bone fragments belonging to six related individuals who lived in and around Ranis approximately 45,000 years ago. The DNA confirms that our ancestors and Neanderthals interbred but pushed those encounters to at least 80 generations earlier than previously thought. Scientists now believe our ancestors and Neanderthals lived and interbred alongside one another for some 7000 years—much longer than prior estimates. One to three percent of our own genomes come from Neanderthal DNA passed down as a result of this period of interbreeding. The Neanderthal genes we carry are beneficial, for example, giving us a more robust immune system.

• In microbiology and molecular genetics: The central dogma of biology describes the one-directional flow of genetic information from DNA to RNA to proteins. Certain viruses defy the central dogma with an enzyme that goes ‘”backwards,” making a DNA copy of RNA but this is not widespread and had not been found in cellular life. . . until now. Scientists discovered a bacterial version of this “backwards” viral enzyme in the bacterium Klebsiella pneumoniae. The bacterial enzyme uses RNA to make brand new genes written as DNA—opposite of the direction information flows in the central dogma. The bacteria then, in the direction of the central dogma, transcribes the genes into RNA, which is translated into proteins that help protect the bacteria from a viral infection.

• In virology: Avian or bird flu has, justifiably, gotten a lot of media attention. The version of bird flu causing concern is H5N1. H5 refers to the version of a gene encoding the protein hemagglutinin and N1 refers to the version of a gene encoding the protein neuraminidase carried by this virus. H5N1 has mostly been found in birds although numerous reports of the virus in cattle and other animals as well as a few reports of human infections have been confirmed. Influenza virus infects cells by binding to a receptor on the surface of cells which acts as a gate to give the virus entrance to the cell so it can replicate. H5N1 binds best to a receptor on bird cells which is why this virus spreads so much more easily in birds than most other susceptible animals, including humans. To determine which and how many changes in the hemagglutinin gene sequence would cause the virus to bind best to the receptor on human cells (rather than bird cells), scientists introduced mutations in the hemagglutinin gene and measured how those mutations affected binding strength to the bird and human receptors. They found that changing a single amino acid in the hemagglutinin protein switched the binding specificity from bird to human-type receptors. This binding preference was enhanced when combined with a second amino acid change. The study underlined the need for scientists to continue surveillance of bird and cattle infections, to hopefully avoid a human-specific mutant from forming, spreading and causing a pandemic. 

The coming year will surely uncover many more interesting, exciting, and weird truths about the natural world. I find that learning about the details of God’s Creation is a way to worship God more fully and I hope you will find this too. I look forward to sharing more discoveries with you in the coming months! Let me know, in the comments, what topics interest you most. Happy New Year!