Launching from Earth

On behalf of my colleagues who conducted the study titled "Primate preoptic neurons drive hypothermia and cold defense," which was recently published in The Innovation, I would like to offer a response to Cerri et al.'s commentary on our study in a correspondence.

Firstly, I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Cerri and colleagues for demonstrating interest in our study and to the European Space Agency Topical Team for their valuable contribution to the exploration of hibernation. Secondly, as highlighted by Cerri et al., we acknowledge that our study did not measure the metabolic rate. This was primarily due to technical challenges encountered during the research process. We are fully aware of the crucial role that metabolic rate plays in torpor induction, but measuring it in large animals such as monkeys posed significant difficulties. Nonetheless, we are collaborating with a team from the Space Institute of Southern China to address this limitation. We hope to provide positive updates on this matter in the upcoming months. Thirdly, I appreciate the meticulousness of Cerri et al. regarding the spaceship depicted in the graphical abstract. In my opinion, aside from summarizing our study’s significant findings, the illustration conveys the bright future that we have envisaged for a long time. We believe this is a valuable means of communicating scientific concepts to the general readership.

I am thrilled to be part of the global community that is dedicated to advancing functional technology for torpor induction. I am confident that the journal, The Innovation, would be delighted to facilitate communication and collaboration between Chinese research teams and the European Space Agency Topical Team. Together, we can see the unseen and change the unchanged.