Feature Channels: Cell Biology

• share
• favorite_border

Living systems rely on a dizzying variety of chemical reactions essential to development and survival. Most of these involve a specialized class of protein molecules--the enzymes. In a new study, Hao Yan, director of the Center for Molecular Design and Biomimetics at ASU's Biodesign Institute presents a clever means of localizing and confining enzymes and the substrate molecules they bind with, speeding up reactions essential for life processes.

• share
• favorite_border

By genetically reprogramming the most common type of cell in mammalian connective tissue, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have generated master heart cells — primitive progenitors that form the developing heart. If replicated in human cells, the feat could one day fuel drug discovery, powerful new models for heart disease and the raw material for treating diseased hearts.

• share
• favorite_border

In a first large-scale systematic study, researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, and McGill University found that most sibling proteins – known as “protein isoforms” encoded by the same gene – often play radically different roles within tissues and cells, however alike they may be structurally.

• share
• favorite_border

A new study in animal models, led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute, is the first to show that oxygen sensing in the brain has a role in metabolism and sensing an organism’s internal state.

• share
• favorite_border

When Joachim Messing discovered a way to crack the genetic code of humans and plants like rice, corn and wheat, he did not patent his work. Instead, he gave away the tools he invented – for free – to his fellow scientists around the world because he believed it was vital for future research.

• share
• favorite_border

From cookies and candies to balloons and cards, heart-shaped items abound this time of year. They're even in our blood. It turns out that the most abundant protein molecule in blood plasma—serum albumin (SA)—is shaped very much like a heart.

• share
• favorite_border

Building on previous studies, Mayo Clinic researchers have demonstrated significant health improvements in the vascular system of mice following repeated treatments to remove senescent cells. They say this is the first study to show that regular and continual clearance of senescent cells improves age-related vascular conditions – and that the method may be a viable approach to reduce cardiovascular disease and death. The findings appear online in Aging Cell.

• share
• favorite_border

A team of scientists led by Stony Brook University biochemist Huilin Li, PhD, have proposed that DNA is unwound by a type of “pumpjack” mechanism, similar to the way one operates on an oil rig.

• share
• favorite_border

In bloodhounds and neutrophils, getting the scent is not enough. Dogs and immune cells have to remember the chemoattractant they are pursuing, even when it momentarily fades out or threatens to overwhelm.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists discover that slime-forming bacteria act as optical objects.

• share
• favorite_border

With fewer than 3,500 episodes a year, cardiac arrest in children is decidedly rare, but it could be a dramatic signal that the victim’s family members may be at a heightened risk for sudden cardiac death. This is why, in the aftermath of such a traumatic event, clinical evaluation of the child’s parents and siblings could lead to lifesaving diagnoses and therapies, averting further tragedy, say cardiologists at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago

• share
• favorite_border

Microorganisms in the gut could play a role in reducing the severity of malaria, according to a new study co-authored by researchers at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and the University of Louisville.

• share
• favorite_border

Using a model blood vessel system built on a polymer microchip, researchers have shown that the relative softness of white blood cells determines whether they remain in a dormant state along vessel walls or enter blood circulation to fight infection.

• share
• favorite_border

Bioengineer Gang Bao and team explore CRISPR-Cas9 alternatives.

• share
• favorite_border

Protein that gives blood vessels and skin their stretchability has its molecular properties revealed.

• share
• favorite_border

BYU research shows unexpected immune system cells may help repair muscles.

• share
• favorite_border

New close-up images of the proteins that copy DNA inside the nucleus of a cell have led a team of scientists to propose a brand new mechanism for how this molecular machinery works. The scientists studied proteins from yeast cells, which share many features with the cells of complex organisms such as humans, and could offer new insight into ways that DNA replication can go awry.

• share
• favorite_border

A new UCLA-Stanford study has pinpointed two tiny clusters of neurons in the brain stem that are responsible for transforming normal breaths into sighs. The discovery may one day allow physicians to treat patients with breathing disorders.

• share
• favorite_border

Stem cell-derived heart muscle cells may fail to effectively replace damaged cardiac tissue because they don’t contract strongly enough, according to a study in The Journal of Cell Biology. The study, “Coupling Primary and Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes in an In Vitro Model of Cardiac Cell Therapy,” by Yvonne Aratyn-Schaus and Francesco Pasqualini and colleagues, may help explain why stem cell-based therapies have so far shown limited benefits for heart attack patients in clinical trials.

• share
• favorite_border

Cellular senescence -- when a cell can no longer divide -- is a programmed stage in a cell's life cycle. Sometimes, as in aging, we wish it didn't happen so much and sometimes, as in cancer, we wish it would happen more. Given its important impacts on health, biologists wish they could explain more about what's happening in cells when senescence takes hold. A new study helps by showing that chromosomes become somewhat transformed, altering their patterns of gene expression.

• share
• favorite_border

Neurobiologists characterize nerve cells that detect motion by light changes.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists had thought that most synapses of a similar type and in a similar location in the brain behaved in a similar fashion with respect to how experience induces plasticity. This study found dramatic differences in the plasticity response, even between neighboring synapses.

• share
• favorite_border

First demonstration of a cancer arising from a single cell.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have discovered a molecular regulator that allows salmonella bacteria to switch from actively causing disease to lurking in a chronic but asymptomatic state called a biofilm.

• share
• favorite_border

Each of our cells has a time to die. Programmed cell death, or apoptosis, helps keep our bodies healthy by ensuring that excess or potentially dangerous cells self-destruct. One way cells know when to pull the plug is through signals received by so-called death receptors that stud cells’ surfaces. Researchers studying a death receptor called Fas have now found that for immune cells to hear the death knell, a largely overlooked portion of the receptor must coil into an intricate three-part formation.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists have for the first time reengineered a building block of a geometric nanocompartment that occurs naturally in bacteria. The new design provides an entirely new functionality that greatly expands the potential for these compartments to serve as custom-made chemical factories.

• share
• favorite_border

Increasing the level of a naturally-produced protein, called tristetraprolin (TTP), significantly reduced or protected mice from inflammation, according to researchers at the National Institutes of Health. The results suggest that pharmaceutical compounds or other therapeutic methods that produce elevated levels of TTP in humans may offer an effective treatment for some inflammatory diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, and multiple sclerosis. The report appeared online Feb. 1 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

• share
• favorite_border

Dr. Max S. Wicha has received a $6.5 million Outstanding Investigator Award to study cancer stem cells, the small number of cells within a tumor that fuel its growth and spread.

• share
• favorite_border

For the first time, researchers have shown that an enzyme key to regulating gene expression -- and also an oncogene when mutated -- is critical for the expression of numerous inflammatory compounds that have been implicated in age-related increases in cancer and tissue degeneration, according to new research from Penn. Inhibitors of the enzyme are being developed as a new anti-cancer target.

• share
• favorite_border

It is normal—in fact necessary—for our immune system to occasionally fly into an inflammatory rage to defend the host (us) against pathogens or even tumor cells. Problems arise when the rage persists or is re-directed against one’s self, as occurs in autoimmune disease.

• share
• favorite_border

Research from Indiana University published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has identified a genetic mechanism that is likely to drive mutations that can lead to cancer.

• share
• favorite_border

Wistar and Rockland partner to release a new collection of Wistar's human melanoma cell lines

• share
• favorite_border

The U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory welcomes two new biologists, Crysten and Ian Blaby, who have been brought to the Lab to explore the many genes that play a role in a plant's ability to harness energy and what those genes could mean for enhancing bioenergy crops. The organism that brought this dynamic duo to Brookhaven: an alga.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at Oregon State University announced today that they have essentially stopped the progression of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease, for nearly two years in one type of mouse model used to study the disease - allowing the mice to approach their normal lifespan.

• share
• favorite_border

The finding by Stony Brook University researchers, published in Structure, may be a foundation to better understanding the cellular process and age-related disease.

• share
• favorite_border

Expert can discuss recent advances in the science of bioanalytics and molecular information, that let us identify and characterize the products of all living cells—including proteins, lipids, metabolites and nucleic acids. He can specifically focus on how this technology is becoming a key driver in basic research, pharmaceutical development and clinical medicine.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists discover a brain circuit that controls walking and identify a new target for treating Parkinson’s disease.

• share
• favorite_border

A pair of studies by a team of scientists has shed new light on the nature of a particular type of DNA sequences—tandem DNA repeat arrays—that play important roles in transcription control, genome organization, and development.

• share
• favorite_border

During an animal’s embryonic development, a chemical chain reaction known as Hippo directs organs to grow to just the right size and no larger. Now Johns Hopkins researchers working with laboratory flies report that this signaling pathway also plays a role in revving up the insects’ immune systems to combat certain bacterial infections.

• share
• favorite_border

Solving a long-standing mystery in cell biology, a team has shown how a key “relief-valve” in cells keeps cells from taking in too much water and swelling excessively. The mechanism has been linked to stroke-induced brain damage, diabetes, immune deficiency and cancer treatment resistance.

• share
• favorite_border

A comprehensive analysis of the molecular characteristics of gliomas—the most common malignant brain tumor—explains why some patients diagnosed with slow-growing (low-grade) tumors quickly succumb to the disease while others with more aggressive (high-grade) tumors survive for many years.

• share
• favorite_border

Three Case Western Reserve University faculty members have received funding to further develop emerging technologies aimed at malaria, cystic fibrosis, and sickle cell anemia.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists have used a new gene-editing technology called CRISPR, to repair a genetic mutation responsible for retinitis pigmentosa (RP), an inherited condition that causes the retina to degrade and leads to blindness in at least 1.5 million cases worldwide.

• share
• favorite_border

Moths sniff out others of their own species using specific pheromone blends. So if you transplant an antenna – the nose, essentially – from one species to another, which blend of pheromones does the moth respond to? The donor species’, or the recipients’? The answer is neither.

• share
• favorite_border

Published January 27, 2016 in Nature Communications, a team led by researchers at the DOE Joint Genome Institute (JGI), a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility, utilized the largest collection of metagenomic datasets to uncover a completely novel bacterial phylum – “Kryptonia.”

• share
• favorite_border

On Tuesday, February 9, at 12:00 noon EST, Global Biological Standards Institute (GBSI) will host its 2016 BioPolicy Summit at the Newseum in Washington, DC. The 2016 Summit—Research Reproducibility: Innovative Solutions to Drive Quality welcomes premiere life science thought leaders as speakers, panelists and guests who will review the complex causes of irreproducibility and focus on tangible solutions to drive greater research quality and accelerate the discovery of life-saving therapies.

• share
• favorite_border

Using real-time recording of cellular movement, biologists at the University of Iowa have discovered how tumors form. Cancer cells reach out and grab other cells, and as little as five percent cancerous cells are needed for tumor formation. Findings could lead to more precise cancer testing.

• share
• favorite_border

Stopping disruptions in cellular “trash removal” brought on by errors in molecular marks on DNA may guard against neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s.

• share
• favorite_border

You wouldn’t think that two Turkish children, some yeast and a bunch of Hungarian fruit flies could teach scientists much. But in fact, that unlikely combination has just helped an international team make a key discovery about how the brain’s “garbage disposal” process works — and how little needs to go wrong in order for it to break down.

• share
• favorite_border

January 22, 2016 - A soy isoflavone derivative that goes by the scientific moniker, (S)-equol, has proven potent for mitigating menopausal symptoms. However, it has been impossible to produce in quantities sufficient for widespread commercial nutraceutical production. But now, a team of Korean researchers reports having constructed a recombinant bacterium which they say can boost production. The research is published January 22nd in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology.