Feature Channels: Cell Biology

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Results reported in Biomicrofluidics promise a new way to detect prostate cancer through a simple device, which forces cell samples through channels less than 10 microns wide. When prostate cancer cells are forced through, the metastatic cells exhibit “blebbing,” and the experiments show that highly metastatic prostate cancer cells are more likely to exhibit blebbing than normal cells or even less-metastatic cells are. The new device could be used in a clinical setting to inexpensively test large numbers of samples.

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UNLV researchers have discovered a novel method for how two parts of the brain — the hippocampus and the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) — work together to retrieve long-term memories.

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Two scientists at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have unraveled aspects of how DNA organizes and preserves genetic information. Newly published research by Cynthia Wolberger, Ph.D., and James Berger, Ph.D., whose labs sit side by side, takes a closer look at how the puzzle pieces of DNA machinery fit together.

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University of Washington researchers developed a strategy to keep proteins intact and functional in synthetic biomaterials for tissue engineering. Their approach modifies proteins at a specific point so that they can be chemically tethered to scaffolds using light.

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Study Identifies New Stem Cell Type That Can Significantly Improve Cardiac Function

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Gastric cancer, Q fever, Legionnaires' disease, whooping cough--though the infectious bacteria that cause these dangerous diseases are each different, they all utilize the same molecular machinery to infect human cells.

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The June issue of SLAS Technology features the article, “Next Generation Compound Delivery to Support Miniaturized Biology,” which focuses on the challenges of changing the established screening paradigm to support the needs of modern drug discovery.

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UC San Diego researchers discover new role for epidermal growth factor receptor in blood stem cell development, a crucial key to being able to generate them in the laboratory, and circumvent the need for bone marrow donation.

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Over one-third of all FDA-approved drugs act on a specific family of proteins: G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs). Drugs to treat high blood pressure, asthma, cancer, diabetes and myriad other conditions target GPCRs throughout the body—but a recent study shows what happens next. In results published in Cell, researchers outline the timeline of events, including precisely when and how different parts of a GPCR interacts with its G protein signaling partners. The findings provide new insights into the fundamental mechanisms of drug-induced signaling in cells, including ways to identify the most critical portions of GPCRs for targeting development of novel therapeutics.

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A new method of assessing the actions of medicines by matching them to their unique protein receptors has the potential to greatly accelerate drug development and diminish the number of drug trials that fail during clinical trials.

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In research that could make biopsies more useful for many diseases, scientists have used a powerful new tool to zero in on individual cells in a patient’s diseased organ and reveal the cells’ underlying glitches in gene expression—information that may allow for more precise and effective treatment. The findings, by scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Montefiore Health System, and other medical institutions, are published online today in Nature Immunology.

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The American Academy of Dermatology has honored oncologist Jennifer Whangbo, MD, PhD, and dermatologist Jennifer Huang, MD, FAAD, as Patient Care Heroes for their collaboration in caring for pediatric stem cell transplant patients.

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An enzyme called diacylglycerol kinase zeta (DGKζ) appears to play an important role in suppressing runaway inflammation in asthma and may represent a novel therapeutic target,

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Drug reactivates p53 tumor suppressor protein and increases chemotherapy effectiveness in potential glioblastoma breakthrough.

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More than one million stem cell treatments have been conducted in the United States during the past ten years. Physicians and other healthcare providers are beginning to realize regenerative medicine is the future of medicine; however major health issues remain unanswered. Dr. Nathan Bryan, one the country’s leading experts in the mechanism of nitric oxide, will tell more than seven thousand physicians attending the 27th Annual Spring Conference of the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine on Saturday that “the ability to use our own cells to heal our own body make good medical sense.

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A multidisciplinary team has provided new insight into underlying mechanisms controlling the precise size of cells. The researchers found that “the adder,” a function that guides cells to grow by a fixed size from birth to division, is controlled by specific proteins that accumulate to a threshold.

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In a study published today in the Nature Communications, researchers from King's College London have shown how skin vaccination can generate protective CD8 T-cells

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The team at the BETCy Energy Frontier Research Center is learning how electron transfer processes drive energy-intensive reactions that produce ammonia and other chemicals. Knowing how electrons move could lead to processes that let industrial reactions soar over energy barriers.

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In its first-ever assessment of biomedical institutions around the world, based upon published research in a targeted set of high-quality scientific journals, the 2019 Nature Index ranked University of California San Diego ninth among the top 200 institutions in biomedical sciences worldwide.

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It’s rare that scientists see the good in the presence of an invasive species. But Washington University in St. Louis researchers discovered that a native mosquito in Missouri has fewer parasites when it shares its waters with an interloper.Scratching your head? Yes, mosquitoes have parasites. And yes, being parasitized is costly for an organism, no matter how much humans love to hate that organism.