Feature Channels: Cell Biology

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A piece of DNA’s movements are often counterintuitive to those of objects in our everyday grasp.  A rod of rubber, for example: Bend it until its ends meet, and you can count on the elastic tension to snap it back straight when you let go. When you bend DNA into a short loop, the elastic energy more often than not wants to bend the chain further in instead of pushing it back out.

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Specific combinations of gut bacteria produce substances that affect myelin content and cause social avoidance behaviors in mice.

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Scientists at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine have developed a way to embed light-responsive switches into proteins so that researchers can use lasers to manipulate protein movement and activity within living cells and animals.

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Scientists may have discovered a significant new diagnostic marker for liver cancer, according to a paper published in the April 18 online issue of Nature Cell Biology.

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Researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have announced a new method for detecting DNA mutations in a single cancer cell versus current technology that analyzes millions of cells which they believe could have important applications for cancer diagnosis and treatment. The results are published in the April 18 online issue of Nature Methods.

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Cancer cells often devise ways to survive even in the presence of toxic chemotherapy. Now, a research team led by investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) has found a way to attack a process that tumor cells use to escape the effects of standard cancer drugs. The discovery is published online today in the journal Nature Cell Biology.

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Removing an immunomodulatory protein called osteopontin improves the symptoms of mice with muscular dystrophy by changing the type of macrophages acting on damaged muscle tissue, according to a paper published in The Journal of Cell Biology. The study, “Osteopontin ablation ameliorates muscular dystrophy by shifting macrophages to a pro-regenerative phenotype” by Joana Capote and colleagues, adds support to the idea that osteopontin inhibitors could be used to treat patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

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Researchers at the Baylor Institute for Immunology Research have discovered that the neutrophils of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients release oxidized DNA from their mitochondria that can stimulate an unwanted immune response. The study “Oxidized mitochondrial nucleoids released by neutrophils drive type I interferon production in human lupus,” which will be published online April 18 in The Journal of Experimental Medicine, suggests that targeting the pathways that lead to the accumulation of this DNA and/or facilitate its removal could be new ways to treat this chronic autoimmune disease.

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Immune cells engineered to seek out and attack a type of deadly brain cancer known as glioblastoma (GBM) were found to have an acceptable safety profile and successfully migrate to and infiltrate tumors, researchers from Penn Medicine and Harvard University reported at the AACR Annual Meeting 2016 (Abstract LB-083).

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After a stroke, there is inflammation in the damaged part of the brain. Until now, the inflammation has been seen as a negative consequence that needs to be abolished as soon as possible. But, as it turns out, there are also some positive sides to the inflammation, and it can actually help the brain to self-repair.

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Using cutting-edge imaging technology, University of California, Irvine biologists have determined that uncontrolled fluctuations (known at “noise) in the concentration of the vitamin A derivative Retinoic acid (RA) can lead to disruptions in brain organization during development.

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Although the second-largest and rather concrete metropolis in the United States might not be anywhere near one's immediate association for a biodiversity hotspot, the fly fauna of Los Angeles is quite impressive. As part of BioSCAN, a project devoted to exploring the insect diversity in and around the city, a team of three entomologists report on their latest discovery - twelve new scuttle fly species. Their study is published in the open access Biodiversity Data Journal.

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A study appearing April 14 in the journal Neuron suggests there may be a new way to change the damaging course of Huntington disease. Researchers have shown that reducing the aberrant accumulation of a particular form of the mutant Huntingtin protein corresponds to improvement in symptoms and neuroinflammation in HD mice.

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A new UCLA study suggests that the virus possesses the ability to mutate rapidly, allowing the current outbreak to spread swiftly around the world.

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Using tracer compounds, scientists have been able to track the cellular production of NADPH, a key coenzyme for making fat, through a pathway that has never been measured directly before.

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The swirling skies of Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night illustrate a mystery that has eluded biologists for more than a century—why do we perceive the color blue in the dimly lit night sky? A newly discovered mechanism of color vision in mice might help answer this question, Caltech researchers say. - See more at: http://www.caltech.edu/news/midnight-blue-new-system-color-vision-50480#sthash.LZOgpxTk.dpuf

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Suppose you were trying to design a vaccine to combat next season's influenza virus. Having a detailed map that tells you exactly how various strains of the flu bug will evolve would be extremely helpful.

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Knowing the three-dimensional structures of different kinds of proteins, RNA molecules and other building blocks of the body is essential for understanding how those molecules work, what goes wrong in disease and how abnormalities might be fixed. Unfortunately, it can take years and a lot of money to determine structure using the standard experimental methods of X-ray crystallography or nuclear magnetic resonance.

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New research identifies a human (host) protein that weakens the immune response to HIV and other viruses. The findings, published in Cell Host & Microbe, have implications for improving HIV antiviral therapies and vaccines.

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Whether a creature is a worm, a fly, a mouse, or a human, death inevitably awaits. And not only do these organisms share a common fate, but also, according to a new study, they may share some of the specific mechanisms of mortality. The researchers found that in all four species, there are 46 genes regulated by the same family of "FOXO" proteins known to be central in aging and longevity.

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Tested in both mice and human cells and produced in the energy-producing mitochondria of cells, the proteins may lead to greater understanding of aging-related diseases from diabetes to Alzheimer's to cancer.

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High-density lipoprotein (HDL) is often referred to as good cholesterol: high levels of HDL are associated with lower risk of cardiovascular disease. But many clinical outcome trials for drugs that raise HDL levels have failed to show significant benefits for trial participants. However, current HDL detection methods usually measure only total HDL cholesterol - a more sensitive detection method could allow investigators to measure the subfractions of HDL, and more precisely pinpoint which of these subfractions should be raised to help protect against cardiovascular events.

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The diet in many developing countries is lacking zinc, but researchers have just solved the riddle of how to get more zinc into crop seeds.

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Many bacteria interact with their environment through hair-like structures known as pili, which attach to and help mediate infection of host organisms, among other things. Now a U.S.-Japanese research team, including scientists from the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, has discovered that certain bacteria prevalent in the human gut and mouth assemble their pili in a previously unknown way – information that could potentially open up new ways of fighting infection.

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Today, GE Ventures and Mayo Clinic announced the launch of Vitruvian Networks, Inc., an independent platform company committed to accelerating access to cell and gene therapies through advanced, cloud-ready software systems and manufacturing services.

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Newly identified mechanism may offer ways to enhance the immune response to fight cancer or strengthen long-term protection provided by vaccines

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T cells are the 'foot soldiers' that fight cancer inside the body. Cancer cells can fight the foot soldiers back by pushing a brake on the T cells that will turn them off. This 'brake' is a molecule on the surface of T cells called CTLA-4. Until now, most scientists agreed that CTLA-4 was only present on T cells and other cells of the same lineage. But Baylor College of Medicine researchers have discovered that CTLA-4 is also produced and secreted by dendritic cells, which are the 'generals' of the T cells in the battle against cancer. The results appear in Stem Cells and Development.

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Protective role for SHARPIN, a protein involved in regulating inflammation, according to report in The American Journal of Pathology.

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HHMI scientists have discovered a command center in the brain that controls how much insects eat and how quickly they consume their food.

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Nanoparticles designed to block a cell-surface molecule that plays a key role in inflammation could be a safe treatment for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), according to researchers in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at Georgia State University and Southwest University in China.

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Reporting in the journal Molecular Cell, the scientists determined that one prominent long non-coding RNA may be a “red herring,” with no evident biological role to play—whereas the DNA from which it originates does perform an important function, as an “enhancer” that stimulates the expression of an important protein-coding gene nearby.

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Researchers have shed new light on how the structure of regulatory sequences in DNA is packaged in a cell. This work has implications for better understanding the role that gene sequences called enhancers play within our DNA for governing gene activity.

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A metabolic pathway that is up-regulated in some breast cancers promotes the disease’s progression by activating a signaling protein called Arf6, according to a paper published in The Journal of Cell Biology. The study, “P53- and mevalonate pathway–driven malignancies require Arf6 for metastasis and drug resistance” by Ari Hashimoto and colleagues, suggests that statin-like drugs may be effective treatments for breast cancer patients whose tumors express high levels of Arf6 signaling proteins.

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By adolescence, your brain already contains most of the neurons that you'll have for the rest of your life. But a few regions continue to grow new nerve cells--and require the services of cellular sentinels, specialized immune cells that keep the brain safe by getting rid of dead or dysfunctional cells.

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How our billion-year-old cousin, baker's yeast, can reveal -- more reliably than leading algorithms -- whether a genetic mutation is actually harmful.

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Altered shedding of epithelial cells from the intestinal lining is associated with multiple disorders, ranging from IBD to colorectal cancer. Researchers at CHLA looked at ways shedding and cell regeneration are controlled in healthy intestine, and found that shedding is negatively regulated by EGF.

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Hundreds of athletes around the globe are competing in one-mile ice swims. Performance and human physiological response in water 5 degrees Celsius or less has not been well-studied. Researchers will present new data on how age, gender and environmental factors such as wind chill affect ice swimming performance at Experimental Biology 2016.

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A new study led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute reveals a previously unknown type of immune cell. The discovery opens new avenues in the effort to develop novel therapies for autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes.

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Many ultraviolet (UV)-filtering chemicals commonly used in sunscreens interfere with the function of human sperm cells, and some mimic the effect of the female hormone progesterone, a new study finds. Results of the Danish study will be presented Friday at the Endocrine Society’s 98th annual meeting in Boston.

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Scientists at the University of Liverpool have tracked how microscopic organisms called cyanobacteria make use of internal protein 'machines' to boost their ability to convert carbon dioxide into sugar during photosynthesis.

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The first largescale study of ancient DNA from early American people has confirmed the devastating impact of European colonisation on the Indigenous American populations of the time.

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Japanese researchers show how thunderbugs provide hints to a sexual mystery.

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Every cell in the body has two genomes, one from the mother and one from the father. Until now, researchers have lacked the tools to examine -- in a single cell –the exact readout from each genome to make RNA. Using a new technology that allows researchers to do just that, an interdisciplinary team examined a rare disease in which these two genomes are expressed differently throughout the body, even sometimes in the same organ.

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Researchers have identified a common variant in a non-coding RNA that may contribute to the intestinal inflammation that occurs in people with celiac disease. The findings point to a possible new risk factor for developing celiac disease in people with celiac disease risk genes.

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Researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and University of British Columbia (UBC) have determined that, in mice, age diminishes ability to regenerate axons, the brain’s communication wires in the spinal cord. The study is published March 31 in Cell Reports.

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To better understand the biological processes that govern lipid raft formation—processes with broad implications for research ranging from how cells regulate proteins to how viruses invade healthy human cells—ORNL researchers are using two world-class research facilities to study the presence and formation of these nanoscale lipid patches.

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New research that may dramatically improve drug development for systemic lupus erythematosus patients published online March 31 in Cell, the most prestigious scientific journal among biologists. The paper, “Personalized Immunomonitoring Uncovers Molecular Networks That Stratify Lupus Patients,” is authored by Dr. Virginia Pascual, principal investigator of the study and researcher at Baylor Institute for Immunology Research, part of Baylor Scott & White Research Institute.

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A novel class of compounds developed by a University of Saskatchewan-led research team could yield more effective and less toxic chemotherapy drugs to treat cancer.

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Scientists at the UNC School of Medicine have found a class of commonly used fungicides that produce gene expression changes similar to those in people with autism and neurodegenerative conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease and Huntington’s disease.