Scientists have shown for the first time that an enzyme crucial to keeping our immune system healthy “surfs” along the strands of DNA inside our cells.
As interdisciplinary sleuths, a Michigan Tech team recently put together clues to solve the case of the sticky protein. The new tool opens more possibilities for studying neurodegenerative diseases like ALS, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), have developed a synthetic biomaterial that fills wounds and aids in regeneration of skin cells, which ultimately improves wound healing.
UCLA researchers have found that space-mapping neurons – the GPS system in the brain - have a strong dependence on what is being looked at when triangulating location, a finding that resolves a neurological mystery that has vexed scientists for more than four decades.
A University of Utah-led study identified a long-sought “hybrid inviability gene” responsible for dead or infertile offspring when two species of fruit flies mate with each other. The discovery sheds light on the genetic and molecular process leading to formation of new species, and may provide clues to how cancer develops.
Evolutionary biologists at Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center, University of Washington and the University of Utah may have solved a century-old evolutionary riddle: How did two related fruit fly species arise from one?
University at Buffalo scientists how levels of various sphingolipids spike inside cancer cells when the cells are undergoing a highly organized form of cellular death called apoptosis.
In two new studies, researchers in the laboratory of Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado, Ph.D., at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research explore the intricate processes at work when stem cells differentiate into planarian skin cells.
new cellular structure responsible for previously unexplained rejection of organ transplants has been identified by researchers at the University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre (CRCHUM.) This discovery could one day revolutionize transplantation practice by modifying risk assessment of rejection in people who receive heart, lung, kidney, or liver transplants
A study published today finds a surprising and very recent shift away from the steady relationship among species that prevailed for more than 300 million years. The study, published in the journal Nature, offers the first long-term view of how species associated with each other for half of the existence of multicellular life on Earth.
Among adults with difficult to treat Crohn disease not amenable to surgery, hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, compared with conventional therapy, did not result in significant improvement in sustained disease remission at l year and was associated with significant toxicity, according to a study in the December 15 issue of JAMA.
In much the same way PAC-MAN gobbles through an intense maze of dots eating and destroying its aggressors, researchers have revealed for the first time how a similar mechanism in the eye lens does exactly the same thing. They have discovered that cells in close proximity to each other can sense when a cell is dying due to environmental stressors like UV light, smoke and other pollutants, and eat the cell before it becomes toxic.
Now researchers at Joslin Diabetes Center have identified a key protein produced in the liver that aids in accelerating the growth of these cells.
Multiple sclerosis (MS) may be triggered by the death of brain cells that make myelin, the insulation around nerve fibers, according to research on a novel mouse model. This can be prevented through the application of specially developed nanoparticles, even after the loss of those brain cells.
Researchers from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) and other institutions are reporting the discovery of the first broad spectrum drug that can potently kill senescent (or aging) cells in culture and effectively clear the cells in animals by specifically targeting a pathway that is critical for the survival of senescent cells.
Brain cancer is not cellular anarchy, says Pedro Lowenstein and colleagues at the University of Michigan and University of Arizona, but highly organized—self-organized. At ASCB 2015, the researchers report that glioma cells build tumors by self-organizing into streams,10-20 cells wide, that obey a mathematically predicted pattern for autonomous agents flowing together. These streams drag along slower gliomas, may block entry of immune cells, and swirl around a central axis containing glioma stem cells that feed the tumor’s growth.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD )is the third leading cause of death in the US and cigarette smoking is the leading cause of COPD. Currently there is no cure, current treatments are largely palliative, and new treatment targets are scarce. Now Corrine Kliment and colleagues in Doug Robinson’s lab at Johns Hopkins University have found two new targets for blocking cigarette smoke-induced COPD in a surprising place—amoebas. Kliment presents the work at ASCB 2015.
Driven by accelerating advances in super-resolution imaging, fluorescent tagging, and Big Data manipulation, we’re living in the Golden Age of Cell Movies. ASCB’s Celldance Studios today releases three new exciting examples of short (4-6 minute) videos, made by cell scientists themselves who tell their own cell research stories, featuring eye-popping live cell imaging.
Further underscoring the prenatal origins of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine describe for the first time how abnormal gene activity in cell cycle networks that are known to control brain cell production may underlie abnormal early brain growth in the disorder.
By linking CRISPR/Cas9 with another cutting edge technology—human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs). Benjamin. Freedman, now at the University of Washington, and his colleagues in Joseph Bonventre’s lab at Harvard Medical School, have used CRISPR/Cas9 to guide hPSCs into becoming a human cell-based lab model system for polycystic kidney disease (PKD).
Researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and University of Colorado Boulder have discovered that unique and changing microbial communities present during decomposition of human cadavers may provide a reliable “clock” for forensic scientists. The method could be used to estimate time of death in different seasons, as well determine the original location of moved corpses and help locate buried corpses.
Meet TrCel7a (pronounced tee-are-cell-seven-a). TrCel7a is a cellulase: a special enzyme that breaks down cellulose, the most plentiful natural polymer on the planet. The enzyme works like a microscopic wood chipper. It swallows strands of tightly bound cellulose and breaks them down into simple sugars. It works very slowly but, like a truck operating at a very low gear, it is extremely difficult to stop once it gets going.
Ghosts are not your typical cell biology research subjects but scientists at the Carnegie Institution for Science and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) who developed a technique to observe muscle stem/progenitor cells migrating within injury sites in live mice, report that “ghost fibers,” remnants of the old extracellular matrix left by dying muscle fibers, guide the cells into position for healing to begin.
Whitehead Institute researchers have created a map of the DNA loops that comprise the three dimensional (3D) structure of the human genome and contribute to gene regulation in human embryonic stem cells. The location of genes and regulatory elements within this chromosomal framework will help scientists better navigate their genomic research, establishing relationships between mutations and disease development.
A hematologist at Rush University Medical Center is studying whether a medication that helps control sugar levels in diabetics also can deprive an aggressive form of blood cancer of the sugar it needs to thrive. The results could have implications for the use of the treatment for other cancers as well.
In a study published in this week’s edition of NATURE, scientists from the Research Institutes of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) and Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna and from the Harvard Medical School in Boston have identified a long-sought “roadblock factor” in stem cell engineering that prevents the conversion of adult cells into induced pluripotent stem cells. By suppressing this factor, the team discovered a way to
As microRNA biology has been implicated in everything from the development of cancer to virus infections, a new tool developed by scientists at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai holds tremendous potential to develop new therapies that involve these small regulatory fragments of RNA.
When we get cold sores, the reason is likely related to stress. For the first time, researchers discovered a cellular mechanism that allows the herpes simplex virus to reactivate. They also found how brain cells are duped into allowing this to happen so that the virus can cause disease.
Metastasizing cancer cells do not destroy tissue, but crawl along the paths that have already been created by blood vessels, nerve bundles and other tissues. However, immune cells that fight the cancer cells take those same paths. This was demonstrated in research conducted by cell biologist Bettina Weigelin of Radboud university medical center in Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
Researchers learn more details about how CRISPR works in cells.
A first-in-human Phase I study of multiple myeloma patients combined expanded cord blood-derived natural killer cells with transplantation of a patient’s own stem cells and high-dose chemotherapy with little or none of the side effects seen with current treatments.
Spermatozoa need to crane their necks to turn right to counteract a left-turning drive caused by the rotation of their tails, new research has found. Led by Dr Vasily Kantsler of the University of Warwick’s Department of Physics, the researchers discovered that all sperm tails (flagella) rotate in a counter-clockwise motion as they beat to enable them to move through and against the motion of a fluid.
A one-of-a-kind instrument built at Colorado State University lets scientists map cellular composition in three dimensions at the nanoscale, allowing researchers to watch how cells respond to new medications at the most minute level ever observed.
UT Southwestern Medical Center and California researchers today provide the first report that an enzyme previously known solely for its role in cell division also acts as an on-off switch in the innate immune system ¬– the body’s first defense against infection.
The vitamin D receptor (VDR) promotes the differentiation of oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs) and boosts myelin sheath regeneration, according to a study in The Journal of Cell Biology. The research suggests potential new ways to treat multiple sclerosis patients.
Researchers at St. Mary’s College of Maryland recently focused their attention on the chemotherapeutic use of an azo- compound (azo- compounds contain a nitrogen-nitrogen double bond) that they designed to convert from an inactive to an active form when exposed to blue or near-UV wavelength light.
Led by Columbia Engineering professor Ken Shepard, researchers have, for the first time, harnessed the molecular machinery of living systems to power an integrated circuit from ATP, the energy currency of life. They achieved this by integrating a conventional solid-state complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) integrated circuit with an artificial lipid bilayer membrane containing ATP-powered ion pumps, opening the door to creating entirely new artificial systems that contain both biological and solid-state components. (Nature Communications 12/7)
Parkinson’s disease researchers at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo have developed a way to ramp up the conversion of skin cells into dopamine neurons. They have identified – and found a way to overcome –a key obstacle to such cellular conversions.
A team of researchers from the National University of Singapore has found a new significant correlation between the protein nucleophosmin and the development of an aggressive form of blood cancer called acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The team, led by Professor Lim Tit Meng from the Department of Biological Sciences at the NUS Faculty of Science, explained the puzzling phenomenon of AML cells appearing like normal cells even though they are cancerous. The team discovered that the mutated form of the protein which is found in about one-third of AML cases, is associated with a novel cellular mechanism that develops AML cells containing normal chromosomes.
The ebb and flow of intracellular calcium concentrations is a universal mode of communication in mammalian cells. Researchers at La Jolla Institute identified the matchmaker that brings two critical calcium channel components together, thus allowing calcium to rush into the fluid-filled space known as cytosol.
Research led by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital has identified genetic variations in young leukemia patients that are associated with an increased incidence of osteonecrosis, a serious cancer treatment side effect
A new, open-source software that can help track the embryonic development and movement of neuronal cells throughout the body of the worm, is now available to scientists.
Turns out dads are also eating for two. A study published December 3 in Cell Metabolism reveals that a man's weight affects the heritable information contained in sperm. The sperm cells of lean and obese men possess different epigenetic marks, notable at gene regions associated with the control of appetite. The comparisons, which included 13 lean men and 10 obese men, offer one biological explanation for why children of obese fathers are themselves more predisposed to obesity.
Epstein-Barr virus and Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus can infect and replicate in cultured and primary neurons.
A new study published in PLOS ONE found that the Transcendental Meditation technique and lifestyle changes both appear to stimulate genes that produce telomerase, an enzyme that's associated with reduced blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and mortality.
In a game-changing study, researchers at UC Davis and other organizations have shown that the enzyme cyclin-dependent kinase 1 (CDK1), which plays a key role in DNA repair, also leaves the nucleus to boost cellular energy production. By irradiating normal cells, the team showed that CDK1 turned up production of ATP, cellular energy packets that – in this case – provided the necessary power supply to fix the radiation-damaged DNA.
During the holidays, we often remember the past and create new memories. But, why do some memories fade away while others last forever? Scientists at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research have identified a possible biochemical mechanism by which the specialized brain cells known as neurons create and maintain a long-term memory from a fleeting experience.
A Stony Brook University-led research team has discovered that when a rare type of glial cells, called NG2 glia, are depleted from the brain in mice, depressive-like behaviors occur.
Parkinson’s disease isn’t the kind of affliction that will kill most people. Instead, it creeps up slowly and progressively destroys the quality of life of those who develop it.
By attaching a hydrogen peroxide reporter protein to cellular microtubule structures, researchers have developed the first sensor able to show the location of the key cellular signaling chemical inside living cells with high resolution over time.
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