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Addressing the urgent need for sustainable transformation in higher education, this paper explores how a collaborative action research group of teacher educators from different institutions contributed to higher education transformation through sustainable education approaches. Drawing on cultural–historical activity theory (CHAT), we analyze how cross-institutional partnerships fostered personal and professional development through digital collaboration, regular online meetings, and reflective dialogue. The study employed participatory action research, using weekly reflective journals and group meetings as mediating tools supporting sustained professional learning. Findings indicate that building common ground across institutional contexts and investing in trust-building cultivated a meaningful collaborative environment, a “third space” that mediated expansive learning and professional transformation. Within this space, the diversity of institutional backgrounds enriched the activity system, and productive contradictions served as generative mechanisms that catalyze expansive learning by exposing participants to diverse institutional perspectives. The study further shows that sustainable collaboration emerged not from formal institutional structures but from shared ownership, cultural alignment, and relational commitment. These social and cultural processes supported the development of systems-thinking, strategic-thinking, and interpersonal competencies supporting sustainable professional development. The study highlights the potential of sustainable cross-institutional spaces as a model for professional growth in higher education.

Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a genetic blinding disease with over 80 causative genes. Disease progression varies between patients with similar genetic backgrounds. We assessed the association between environment, gut microbiota, and retinal degeneration in the RP rat model Royal College of Surgeons (RCS). The rats were born and raised for two generations under specific pathogen-free (SPF, n = 69) or non-SPF conditions (n = 48). At the age of four weeks, SPF rats had significantly shorter dark-adapted a-wave and dark and light-adapted b-wave implicit times by electroretinogram ( p  = 0.014, p  = 9.5*10 −6 , p  = 0.009, respectively). The SPF rats had significantly less photoreceptor apoptosis at ages four, eight, and twelve weeks (all p  < 0.022), significantly thicker debris zone at age 14 weeks, and smaller hypofluorescent lesions in SPF rats at ages 10–16 weeks, especially in the inferior retina. The non-SPF rats had significantly higher microbiota alpha diversity ( p  = 0.037) and failed to present the age-related maturation of Proteobacteria, Spirochaetes, Actinobacteria, and Bacteroidetes seen in SPF conditions. Specific microbial amplicon sequence variants were reduced in rats with more severe retinal degeneration. Our data suggest an environmental effect on retinal deterioration in RCS rats. These findings may lead to the development of novel microbiome-related interventions for retinal degeneration.