Feature Channels: Cell Biology

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Studying mice, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown that a natural sugar called trehalose revs up the immune system’s cellular housekeeping abilities. These souped-up housecleaners then are able to reduce atherosclerotic plaque that has built up inside arteries. Such plaques are a hallmark of cardiovascular disease and lead to an increased risk of heart attack.

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A University of Arkansas biologist is studying heat-stress response in yeast to help determine the role of protein acetylation in cells

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A Tulane endocrinologist has co-authored a guide in the latest issue of Cell Metabolism to help scientists who study obesity, diabetes or other metabolic diseases better account for inherent sex differences in research.

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Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine report that cancer cells appear to communicate to other cancer cells, activating an internal mechanism that boosts resistance to common chemotherapies and promotes tumor survival.

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Dr. Kunle Odunsi of Roswell Park Cancer Institute presented an update about an ongoing clinical trial involving T-cell engineering to treat advanced ovarian cancer at the ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago.

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St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital discovery of a regulatory enzyme working at the primary cilium could lead to treatments for the brain tumor medulloblastoma

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The University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine will launch a new center that will focus on understanding tissue regeneration and pioneering future developments in stem cell biology as a means to repair diseased organs and tissues.

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When many individual neurons collect data, how do they reach a unanimous decision? New research from the Santa Fe Institute's collective computation group suggests a two-phase process.

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A research study led by University of Minnesota engineers gives new insight into how cancer cells move based on their ability to sense their environment. The discovery could have a major impact on therapies to prevent the spread of cancer. The same research also could be used to improve regenerative medicine.

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A study published in Molecular Cancer Research reveals that a tumor suppressor gene p16 is turned off by a histone mutation (H3.3K27M), which is found in up to 70 percent of childhood brain tumors called diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG). This insight suggests that restoring p16 is a promising therapeutic strategy. The authors have demonstrated that this can be accomplished in vitro using a drug that is approved for treatment of adult leukemia and other cancers.

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The cancer risk for a human mission to Mars has effectively doubled following a UNLV study predicting a dramatic increase in the disease for astronauts traveling to the red planet or on long-term missions outside the protection of Earth's magnetic field. New predictive model, published in Scientific Reports, shows radiation from cosmic rays extends from damaged to otherwise healthy 'bystander' cells.

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A multidisciplinary team of researchers has received a $25,000 seed grant from the Penn State Institute for CyberScience to develop a modeling platform to predict the deformability and morphological changes of diseased and aged red blood cells.

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Precise fluorescent imaging at the molecular level has not been possible because of non-specific fluorescence by surrounding tissues. Now researchers have resolved many of these problems by using SWIR quantum dots in live mice to image working organs, take metabolic measurements, and track microvascular blood flow in normal brain and brain tumors

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In a study published in the June 5, 2017, issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Stowers scientists Bony De Kumar, Ph.D., and Robb Krumlauf, Ph.D., provide evidence of direct cross-regulatory feedback, or cross-talk, between Nanog and Hox genes.

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A new study by scientists at the University of Birmingham has revealed a group of cells that function as a ‘brain’ for plant embryos capable of assessing environmental conditions and dictating when seeds will germinate.

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Findings from an early study evaluating a sophisticated new genomic-sequencing approach that analyzes cell-free DNA (cfDNA) in the blood of people with advanced cancer will help inform development of a future assay that could potentially detect cancer in its earliest stages, according to research presented today by a Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) investigator at the 2017 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting in Chicago.

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Multiple genomic elements work cooperatively and over long distances in order to ensure the proper functioning of chromosomes, a team of scientists has found.

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This story starts with a young graduate student in San Diego and leads all the way to Sierra Leone, to a unique hospital where Lassa fever victims arrive by the thousands every year.

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A team of scientists have for the first time mapped the molecular structure of an elusive surface protein on the Lassa virus that allows the pathogen to infect human cells.

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Led by Eric Schadt, PhD, Sema4 will use genomic and clinical data to empower more informed health decisions and enhance care and wellness

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Chronic pain occurs when receptors are drawn inside the nerve cell, out of the reach of pain medications. The discovery may lead to a more potent class of medications for chronic pain that has fewer side effects.

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Scientists for the first time combine organoids with bioengineering. Using small microfilaments, they show improved tissue architecture that mimics human brain development more accurately and allows more targeted studies of brain development and its malfunctions, as reported in the current issue of Nature Biotechnology.

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Combining the kinase inhibitor ibrutinib with an investigational personalized cellular therapy known as CTL119 can lead to complete remission in patients with high-risk chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center (ACC). The team will present the results from its pilot study of this combination therapy during the 2017 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting (Abstract # 193355).

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The Blavatnik Family Foundation and the New York Academy of Sciences today announced the Finalists for the 2017 Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists. From a pool of 308 nominees – the most promising scientific researchers aged 42 years and younger at America’s top academic and research institutions – the 30 Finalists will now compete for the largest unrestricted awards of their kind for early career scientists and engineers.

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The American Society of Clinical Oncology has named University of Pennsylvania cancer and HIV gene therapy pioneer Carl June, MD, as the 2017 winner of the David A. Karnofsky Memorial Award. The honor goes to an oncologist who has made outstanding contributions to cancer research, diagnosis, and treatment. In addition to receiving the award, June will give the Karnofsky Lecture on Saturday, June 3, during the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual meeting in Chicago.

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Combo of T-cell therapy, newly FDA-approved drug and another immunotherapeutic agent kept cancer at bay for three out of four patients with metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma. The findings will be presented June 5 at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

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Researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine report new evidence that immune cells infected with a latent form of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are able to proliferate, replenishing the reservoir of virus that is resistant to antiretroviral drug therapy. Although HIV can be controlled with therapy in most cases, the proliferation of such reservoir cells pose a persistent barrier to developing a cure for HIV, researchers say.

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The combination of pembrolizumab and the checkpoint inhibitor known as epacadostat is leading to promising responses and is generally well tolerated in patients with triple-negative breast cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, squamous cell cancer of the head and neck, and several other cancers, according to researchers from the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania. Their findings also showed that adding pembrolizumab to standard therapies for breast cancer improved the number of patients achieving a pathological complete response.

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Scientists could be one step closer to developing long-awaited vaccines against viruses such as Zika, West Nile or HIV, thanks to research at Penn State College of Medicine.

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A new study of non-diabetic women with ovarian cancer reveals a potential correlation and area for further study regarding the expression of the GLUT1 glucose transporter receptor at the cancer tissue level. GLUT1 is a receptor protein involved in the absorption of glucose, or sugar, in the bloodstream and across membranes in the body.

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A team led by Igor Slukvin, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, and cell and regenerative biology, describes the developmental pathway that gives rise to the different types of cells that make up human vasculature.

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A research team from the National University of Singapore led by Assistant Professor Takaomi Sanda, Principal Investigator from the Cancer Science Institute of Singapore and Department of Medicine at NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, has provided new insights into the molecular mechanism affecting how genes are produced during normal T-cell development, and contributing to leukaemia formation.

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Researchers report that CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology can introduce hundreds of unintended mutations into the genome.

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An experimental treatment in mice allows the reprogramming of blood cells in order to promote the healing process of cutaneous wounds. This novel approach published recently in Journal of Investigative Dermatology could prove to be beneficial in healing challenging wounds in diabetics and major-burn victims.

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Obesity is linked with the composition of microbes in the human gut. In new research, bacterial composition in the gut, as well as accompanying metabolites are shown to undergo a profound and permanent shift, with microbial diversity significantly increasing following gastric bypass surgery.

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Scientists at the University of Texas at Dallas have found that a protein responsible for transporting glucose — a kind of sugar — into cells is present in significantly higher levels in lung squamous cell carcinoma than in lung adenocarcinoma.

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Changing natural electrical signaling in non-neural cells improves innate immune response to bacterial infections and injury. Tadpoles that received therapeutics, including those used in humans for other purposes, which depolarized their cells had higher survival rates when infected with E. coli than controls. The research has applications for treatment of emerging diseases and traumatic injury in humans.

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Researchers at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP) today announced six boxes of fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) will travel to the International Space Station (ISS) to study the impact of weightlessness on the heart. The fruit flies are scheduled to launch on June 1, 2017, from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and will travel to the ISS via a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.

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How water relates to and interacts with biological systems – like DNA, the building block of all living things – is of critical importance, and a Cornell University group has used a relatively new form of spectroscopy to observe a previously unknown characteristic of water.

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All cancer tumors have one thing in common – they must feed themselves to grow and spread, a difficult feat since they are usually in a tumor microenvironment with limited nutrients and oxygen. A study at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has revealed new details about how an enzyme called acetyl-CoA synthetase 2 (ACSS2) allows brain tumors to grow despite their harsh surroundings.

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In a new study, published this week in Current Biology, a team of University of Pennsylvania researchers report newly mapped changes in the network organization of the brain that underlie those improvements in executive function. The findings could provide clues about risks for certain mental illnesses.

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UW synthetic biology researchers have demonstrated a new method for digital information processing in living cells, analogous to the logic gates used in electric circuits. In a key step in the ability to program living cells, the team built the largest circuits published to date in eukaryotic cells, using DNA instead of silicon and solder.

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A team of researchers from the University of Delaware have discovered how to label and light the sugar backbone of a bacterial cell wall. The findings will advance immune system research.

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A 12-month study mapping bacterial diversity within a hospital — with a focus on the flow of microbes between patients, staff and surfaces — should help hospitals worldwide better understand how to encourage beneficial microbial interactions and decrease potentially harmful contact. The Hospital Microbiome Project is the single biggest microbiome analysis of a hospital performed, and one of the largest microbiome studies ever.

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Researchers at the University of Michigan, Stanford University and biotech company ConfometRx have captured the first cryo-electron microscopy snapshots of a key cellular receptor in action.

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Dennis Brown, PhD, assumed the presidency of the American Physiological Society (APS) in April, immediately following the APS annual meeting at Experimental Biology 2017. Brown is a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and director of the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) program in membrane biology in the division of nephrology. He also serves as associate director of the MGH Center for Systems Biology and director of the MGH Office for Research Career Development (ORCD).

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A research team from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has performed the first-ever direct nanoscale examination of a living cell membrane. In doing so, it also resolved a long-standing debate by identifying tiny groupings of lipid molecules that are likely key to the cell’s functioning.

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Researchers in the Integrated Mathematical Oncology Department at Moffitt Cancer Center recent study found that mathematical models can be used to predict how different tumor cell populations interact with each other and respond to a changing environment.

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If every cell in our body is a factory, viruses are industrial spies who try to break in and take over. New findings about how one of the most mysterious types of spy – polyomaviruses -- accomplishes this feat could aid the fight against Merkel cell carcinoma, and diseases in organ transplant and cancer patients.