Feature Channels: Cell Biology

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WSU scientists discover mechanism critical to pathogens' success.

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Long before there were fish swimming in the oceans, tiny microorganisms were using long slender appendages called cilia and flagella to navigate their watery habitats. Now, new research reveals that species of single-celled algae coordinate their flagella to achieve a remarkable diversity of swimming gaits.

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When It Comes to Spring Allergies, Oak Pollen More Potent Than Pine; Food Allergies of Low-Income Kids Are Poorly Managed; Flowers Not to Blame for Allergies, and More in the Allergies Channel

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Researchers from UT Southwestern Medical Center have identified an important new function of genes in the Fanconi anemia pathway – a finding that could have implications for development of new therapies to treat this disorder and some cancers.

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This research investigates the role of intraventricular transplantation using bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell in stroke patients.

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Structural biologists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) and Janelia Research Campus/HHMI, have obtained snapshots of the activation of an important type of brain-cell receptor. Dysfunction of the receptor has been implicated in a range of neurological illnesses, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, depression, seizure, schizophrenia, autism, and injuries related to stroke.

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Harvard Medical School scientists have developed an improved method for quantifying how sensitive cells are to cancer drugs. The approach works by zeroing in on an important characteristic that current methods do not take into account: the varying rates at which cells divide. The research team, led by Peter Sorger, the Otto Krayer Professor of Systems Pharmacology at HMS and head of the Harvard Program in Therapeutic Science, published its findings May 2 in Nature Methods.

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The cellular response to the lack of oxygen fans the flames of flare-ups in a rare bone disorder. In fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP), a mutation triggers bone growth in muscles, which limits motion, breathing, and swallowing, among a host of progressive symptoms. The study identifies HIF-1α as a therapeutic target for stopping the extra bone growth in FOP and other disorders.

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LA JOLLA, CA—Follicular helper T cells (Tfh cells), a rare type of T cells, are indispensible for the maturation of antibody-producing B cells. They promote the proliferation of B cells that produce highly selective antibodies against invading pathogens while weeding out those that generate potentially harmful ones. In their latest study, researchers at La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology identified a key signal that drives the commitment of immature Tfh cells into fully functional Tfh cells and thus driving the step-by-step process that results in a precisely tailored and effective immune response.

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High risk, potentially cancer causing human papillomavirus infections are common among women in Papua New Guinea. But self sampling with vaginal swabs may provide materials that screen as accurately as the more labor-intensive approach using cervical samples obtained by clinicians. This finding is critical to developing same day screening and treatment, which is key to ensuring that women with precancerous lesions are treated in this largely unconnected (electronically) country, and in others like it. The research appeared online April 13, 2016 in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology, which is published by the American Society for Microbiology.

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Researchers at Boston Children's Hospital have reprogrammed mature blood cells from mice into blood-forming hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), using a cocktail of eight genetic switches called transcription factors. The reprogrammed cells, which the researchers have dubbed induced HSCs (iHSCs), have the functional hallmarks of HSCs, are able to self-renew like HSCs, and can give rise to all of the cellular components of the blood like HSCs.

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The National Eye Institute (NEI), part of NIH, is participating in the Inaugural Press Conference from the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology Annual Meeting (ARVO 2016).

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A Stanford-led national collaboration to procure and analyze human pancreatic tissue from deceased donors illustrates how the organ’s function changes as we age, and could point the way toward new diabetes treatments.

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Organization recognized for innovative research, care

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A pair of molecular signals controls skin and hair color in mice and humans — and could be targeted by new drugs to treat skin pigment disorders like vitiligo, according to a report by scientists at NYU Langone Medical Center.

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A University of Wisconsin-Madison neuroscientist has inserted a genetic switch into nerve cells so a patient can alter their activity by taking designer drugs that would not affect any other cell. The cells in question are neurons and make the neurotransmitter dopamine, whose deficiency is the culprit in the widespread movement disorder Parkinson's disease.

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A gene known as TJP1 (tight junction protein 1) could help determine which multiple myeloma patients would best benefit from proteasome inhibitors such as bortezomib, as well as combination approaches to enhance proteasome inhibitor sensitivity, according to a study led by The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

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Scientists from The Scripps Research Institute’s Florida campus have shown how sometimes small, often imperceptible, structural changes in a key breast cancer receptor are directly linked to regulating molecules and can produce predictable effects in curbing or accelerating cancer growth.

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The American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) has named Erika Shugart, PhD, as its new Executive Director, effective June 1.

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A new study led by researchers at the University of Minnesota and Nantes University Hospital in France shows that the bacteria in people’s gut may predict their risk of life-threatening blood infections following high-dose chemotherapy.

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Pinellas County a Model for Mosquito-Borne Disease Surveillance, Scientists Unravel the Genetic Evolution of Zika Virus, Worm Infection Counters Inflammatory Bowel Disease and more in the Infectious Diseases News Source

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Univ. of Iowa biologists have homed in on the genes that tell brain cells to grow the tendrils critical for passing messages throughout the body. In a new study, they report certain genes in nearby neurons need to be exact matches in order for the signaling branches to grow properly. Results published in the journal Cell Reports.

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Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have solved the structure of the biological machinery used by a common virus to recognize and attack human host cells. The new structure gives scientists the first view of the glycoprotein of lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus.

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A new study published in Nature Chemical Biology reports the first small molecule targeted therapy for progressive hearing loss in a mouse model of USH3, an USH classified by progressive loss of hearing and vision starting in the first few decades of life along with variable balance disorder.

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Princeton University researchers have found that dopamine - a brain chemical involved in learning, motivation and many other functions - also has a direct role in representing or encoding movement. The finding could help researchers better understand dopamine's role in movement-related disorders such as Parkinson's disease.

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An international team of including the Lomonosov Moscow State University researchers discovered which enzyme enables Escherichia coli bacterium (E. coli) to breathe. The study is published in the Scientific Reports.

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University of Leicester researchers shed light on the role of inositol phosphate molecules in gene regulatory complexes.

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The group, building on their 2012 landmark discovery, has shown that a third species of African spiny mouse can completely close four millimeter ear holes and regenerate missing tissue. This new study suggests that genetic factors underlie variation in regenerative ability.

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How easily did life arise on Earth, how likely is it on other planets? A new experiment strongly supports the idea that very early life coding molecules, ancestors of RNA and DNA, arose in primordial puddles with relative ease and speed, and not necessarily just in rarer fiery cataclysms.

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The most aggressive form of pancreatic cancer – often described as one of the hardest malignancies to diagnose and treat -- thrives in the presence of neighboring tumor cells undergoing a particular form of “orchestrated cell death.” This according to a study recently published in Nature.

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A team at Kennesaw State University have developed a novel cell-penetrating peptide (CPP) technology capable of carrying other molecular “cargos” directly into living cells, coupling with them and then successfully uncoupling after delivering its payload. Cargos can be therapeutic molecules like antibodies that fight against parasites and diseases, or anti-cancer proteins.

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Researchers at UMass Medical School have identified a new molecular pathway critical for maintaining the smooth muscle tone that allows the passage of materials through the digestive system. This finding, based on studying calcium ion-controlled pathways in mice, may lead to new treatments for a host of digestive disorders ranging from common gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), to swallowing disorders, incontinence and pancreatitis. Details of the study were published in Nature Communications.

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A team of researchers at Sinai Health System's Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute (LTRI) and University of Toronto's Donnelly Centre has developed a new technology that can stitch together DNA barcodes inside a cell to simultaneously search amongst millions of protein pairs for protein interactions. The paper will be published today in the journal Molecular Systems Biology.

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If shooting arrows from a crossbow into cubes of ballistics gelatin doesn't sound like biological science to you, you've got a lot to learn from University of Illinois animal biology professor Philip Anderson, who did just that to answer a fundamental question about how animals use their fangs, claws and tentacles to puncture other animals.

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Columbia Engineering-led team reports achieving real-time single molecule electronic DNA sequencing at single-base resolution using a protein nanopore array. The team includes researchers from Columbia University, Genia Technologies (Roche), Harvard University, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The work sets the stage for revolutionary, cost-effective genetic diagnostic platforms with unprecedented potential for precision medicine. (PNAS, 4/18/2016)

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While scientists have known for many years that there are cells living in the cavities surrounding various organs such as the heart, lung and liver, their function has remained unknown. A recent Cumming School of Medicine study examined these cells, and discovered they play an integral role in fast tissue repair. The study was published in the journal Cell this month.

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Researchers believe that genetically modified bacteria can help explain how a developing animal keeps all of its parts and organs in the same general proportions as every other member of its species.

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Molecular struts called microtubules interact with the heart’s contractile machinery to provide mechanical resistance for the beating of the heart, which could provide a better understanding of how microtubules affect the mechanics of the beating heart, and what happens when this goes awry.

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An eight-year-long accrual and analysis of the whole genome sequences of healthy elderly people, or “Wellderly,” has revealed a higher-than-normal presence of genetic variants offering protection from cognitive decline, researchers from the Scripps Translation Science Institute reported.

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Thanks to combination antiretroviral therapies, many people with HIV can expect to live decades after being infected. Yet doctors have observed these patients often show signs of premature aging. Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and the University of Nebraska Medical Center have applied a highly accurate biomarker to measure just how much HIV infection ages people at the cellular level — an average of almost five years.

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It has been disorienting to the scientific and medical community as to why different subtle changes in a protein-coding gene causes many different genetic disorders in different patients -- including premature aging, nerve problems, heart problems and muscle problems. no other gene works like this. According to a new study, co-authored by Binghamton University faculty Eric Hoffman, it has to do with cell “commitment.”

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Drug-carrying “nanoghosts” that battle melanoma and new treatments for malignant mesothelioma will be the focus of the first joint research projects led by NYU Langone Medical Center and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology under a groundbreaking research initiative.

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Targeted missiles that can enter cancer cells and deliver lethal cell toxins without harming surrounding healthy tissue. This has been a long-standing vision in cancer research, but it has proved difficult to accomplish. A research group at Lund University in Sweden has now taken some crucial steps in this direction.

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Phone calls and text messages reach you wherever you are because your phone has a unique identifying number that sets you apart from everybody else on the network. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology are using a similar principle to track cells being sorted on microfluidic chips.

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Dr. Kevin Francis’ research appears in Nature Medicine

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A protein previously known for its role in kidney function, adaptor protein CD2AP, also plays a significant role in the nervous system, and is associated with a type of neural growth known as collateral sprouting.

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A team of researchers who specialize in treating cancers of the eye wanted to identified EZH2 as a marker for aggressive basal cell skin cancer. It may also provide a potential target for treatment.

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Research led by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists may set the stage for new approaches to control or prevent the inflammation and tissue damage associated with the chronic autoimmune disorder lupus

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Dr. Philip Greenberg, head of immunology and a member of the Clinical Research Division at Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and a leader in cancer immunology, will describe how he and colleagues are genetically engineering T cells to seek out cancer cells, penetrate their defenses and kill them. In a presentation at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2016 in New Orleans, he also will provide a preview of next-generation strategies and upcoming clinical trials for a variety of cancers.

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UMMS scientists develop multicolored labeling system to track genomic locations in live cells.