Feature Channels: Cell Biology

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Multiple sclerosis, a debilitating neurological disease, is triggered by self-reactive T cells that successfully infiltrate the brain and spinal cord where they launch an aggressive autoimmune attack against myelin, the fatty substance that surrounds and insulates nerve fibers. In their latest study, published in the Nov. 2, 2015, advance online issue of Nature Immunology, researchers at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology report that these disease-causing autoimmune T cells are lured into the nervous system by monocytes and macrophages, a subset of immune cells better known as the immune system’s cleanup crew.

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The first-ever images of the protein complex that unwinds, splits, and copies double-stranded DNA reveal something rather different from the standard textbook view. The electron microscope images, created by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory with partners from Stony Brook University and Rockefeller University, offer new insight into how this molecular machinery functions.

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Researchers from the University of Southampton have established that eggs have a protective ‘checkpoint’ that helps to prevent DNA damaged eggs being fertilised.

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As Halloween approaches, we turned up some spectral images that highlight some spooky-sounding—but really important—biological topics that researchers are actively investigating to spur advances in medicine.

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A new class of DNA repair enzyme has been discovered which demonstrates that a much broader range of damage can be removed from the double helix in ways that biologists did not think were possible.

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A key protein controls stem cell properties that could make them more useful in regenerative medicine, according to a study led by Mount Sinai researchers and published online today in the journal Cell Stem Cell.

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Researchers in the Workman Lab at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research have identified a link between cellular metabolism and gene expression, one with potentially far-reaching implications for cancer risk prediction and treatment.

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The study has implications for cancer research, as scientists try to understand how cells avoid errors that promote cancer development. It could also be useful in synthetic biology, where scientists work to make robust mechanisms for synthetic life.

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Autophagy, the degradation of unwanted cellular bits and pieces by the cell itself, has been shown for the first time to also work in the cell nucleus. In this setting it plays a role in guarding against the start of cancer.

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Proteins called cytokines are known to influence immune cell fate, but the process is complex. Researchers examined how a specific cytokine, interleukin-15, influences gene expression patterns in T helper cells.

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Prof. Avihai Danon has discovered plants’ “off” switch for producing starch, 50 years after the “on” switch was found. Further, his team at the Weizmann Institute learned that the on and off switches are active at the same time, which is like driving while pressing both the gas and the brakes – but why?

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Most cancer drugs are designed to target dividing cells, but a new study by Stony Brook University researchers suggests that targeting invasive cells may be a new strategy to treat metastatic cancer.

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Researchers discover way to bypass faculty cell signaling that leads to muscle damage in Duchene muscular dystrophy.

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New research shows that an ancient protein that protects bacteria from bursting also helps pollen survive the dangerous transition from desiccated to hydrated once it lands on the female flower. But in pollen’s case, the protein has evolved to provide just the right amount of internal pressure: enough to power cell growth but not so much that the pollen bursts and dies.

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Inhibiting a family of enzymes inside hair follicles that are suspended in a resting state restores hair growth, a new study from researchers at Columbia University Medical Center has found.

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A banana a day may not keep the doctor away, but a substance originally found in bananas and carefully edited by scientists could someday fight off a wide range of viruses. And the process used to create it may help scientists harness the “sugar code” that our cells use to communicate.

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A study led by the University of Utah School of Medicine has identified molecular mechanisms that control an immune cell’s ability to remember. They found that in helper T cells, the proteins Oct1 and OCA-B work together to put immune response genes on standby so that they are easily activated when the body is re-exposed to a pathogen. The research, which could inform strategies for developing better vaccines, was performed in collaboration with scientists from The Broad Institute and University of Michigan, and published in The Journal of Experimental Medicine.

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Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have found a way to change leukemia cells into leukemia-killing immune cells. The surprise finding could lead to a powerful new therapy for leukemia and possibly other cancers.

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SBP researchers and colleagues discover a mechanism that regulates the aging and abundance of secreted proteins

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When a Lake Malawi cichlid loses a tooth, a new one drops neatly into place as a replacement. Why can't humans similarly regrow teeth lost to injury or disease?

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A new genetic discovery could help scientists understand exactly how one X chromosome in each cell of a female's body gets "silenced" – and perhaps lead to better treatment for X-linked diseases.

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A group of researchers from five national laboratories, led by the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory, are collaborating in a project called "Mapping the Protein Universe."

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Writing in Scientific Reports, researchers led by a group from Roswell Park Cancer Institute have shared new insights about a subset of T cells that appear to both inhibit cancer growth and enhance the tumor-killing powers of other immune cells.

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Different treatments for Crohn's disease in children affects their gut microbes in distinct ways, which has implications for future development of microbial-targeted therapies for these patients.

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A team led by Brown’s George Karniadakis, is using the Cray XK7 Titan supercomputer to simulate hundreds of millions of red blood cells in an attempt to develop better drug delivery methods and predictors to fight against tumor formation and sickle cell anemia.

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A study led by Indiana University biologist Patricia Foster and colleagues has found that forces in the external environment and oxidation are the greatest threats to an organism’s ability to repair damage to its own DNA.

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If you take certain atoms and make them almost as cold as they possibly can be, the atoms will fuse into a collective low-energy quantum state called a Bose-Einstein condensate. In 1968 physicist Herbert Fröhlich predicted that a similar process at a much higher temperature could concentrate all of the vibrational energy in a biological protein into its lowest-frequency vibrational mode. Now scientists in Sweden and Germany have the first experimental evidence of such so-called Fröhlich condensation. They report their results in the journal Structural Dynamics.

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The Association of American Cancer Institutes will present the AACI Distinguished Scientist Award to Lewis Cantley, PhD, on October 26, during the 2015 AACI/CCAF Annual Meeting, in Washington, DC.

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A new survey of almost 450 biomedical researchers from every major stakeholder group (e.g., academia, industry) conducted by the Global Biological Standards Institute (GBSI) shows little has changed in cell line authentication and culture practices in the past decade—practices that contribute to irreproducible research, and delays and increased costs of drug discovery. The results are detailed in The culture of cell culture practices and authentication—Results from a 2015 Survey, by Leonard P. Freedman, Ph.D., lead author, published today in the open access journal BioTechniques.

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As we age, our biological clocks wind down – but why? A Weizmann Institute team studying circadian clocks has found a clue: a link between the clocks and a group of metabolites called polyamines. When added to the drinking water of older mice, polyamines reversed some signs of aging; naturally found in many foods, it’s possible they could do the same for us.

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Researchers have discovered a new cell type that appears to drive life-threatening food allergies and may help explain why some people get severe allergic reactions and others do not.

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Whitehead Institute scientists have at last answered the long-standing question of how the growth-regulating pathway known as mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) detects the presence of the amino acid leucine—itself a key player in modulating muscle growth, appetite, and insulin secretion.

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Scientists engineered stem cells to better understand the mechanisms behind a form of leukemia caused by changes in a key gene, according to a study led by Mount Sinai researchers and published online today in the journal Cell Reports.

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The new technique allows scientists to study diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s using cells from human patients

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A team of Ludwig Cancer Research scientists has mapped out how a mutant version of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) known as EGFRvIII specifically drives critical processes that alter the reading of the genome to fuel the growth of the brain cancer glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) and—most important—how each process is linked to the other.

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Working with gut stem cells from humans and mice, scientists from the Johns Hopkins Children's Center and the University of Pittsburgh have successfully grown healthy intestine atop a 3-D scaffold made of a substance used in surgical sutures.

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Researchers have a new genome screen that has identified partner molecules of cell-waste disposal proteins. They applied their new method to identify other clock partners that target a multipurpose cell nucleus receptor for disposal.

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When rats modeled with stroke were transplanted with newly discovered and unique Muse cells, neuronal regeneration resulted in significant improvements in neurological and motor functions and did not cause cancer, as other cells often do.

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Scientists from Tulane University are using Argonne's Mira supercomputer to advance next-generation solar energy technologies by probing the functional interfaces found in organic and hybrid solar cells. Argonne Leadership Computing Facility staff helped accelerate their research by enhancing the team’s code so simulations run up to 30 percent faster on the supercomputer.

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E. coli ClpB is a bacterial enzyme that untangles proteins. Such tangles are hallmarks of neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. A study led by UAB's Aaron Lucius offers new insight on this amazing molecular machine, and could lead toward new treatment approaches.

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Tick tock. Tick tock. A team of scientists from Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore (Duke-NUS) and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor have discovered a molecular switch that regulates the body’s circadian clock and allows it to keep time. This switch could be a potential drug target to treat circadian rhythm disorders caused by jet lag, shift work or metabolic disorders.

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An experimental drug originally identified in a National Cancer Institute library of chemical compounds as a potential therapy for brain and basal cell cancers improves the symptoms of mice with a form of the debilitating neurological disorder multiple sclerosis (MS), according to new research from NYU Langone Medical Center.

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A team of Virginia Tech researchers has refined a mathematical model that simulates the impact of genetic mutations on cell division -- a step that could provide insight into errors that produce and sustain harmful cells, such as those found in tumors.

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New York University biologists, in collaboration with scientists at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, have identified a mechanism that promotes activation of genes critical for the initiation of embryonic development.

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Researchers at Johns Hopkins and the University of Washington report new research that sheds light on how the retina sets its own biological rhythm using a novel light-sensitive pigment, called neuropsin, found in nerve cells at the back of the eye.

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Fat grafting—taking fat from one area of the body and transferring it elsewhere—has become a widely used plastic surgery technique. But what's the best method of processing cells for fat grafting procedures? Available research data still can't settle that long-running debate, according to a review in the October issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).

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Researchers have discovered how a tiny viral protein enables the infection of a complex plant, and the finding could lead to understanding viral diseases in other plants, animals and humans, according to a team of Texas A&M AgriLife Research biochemists.

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UCSF researchers have engineered a molecular “on switch” that allows tight control over the actions of T cells, immune system cells that have shown great potential as therapies for cancer.

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Mitochondria are not only the power plants of our cells; these tiny structures also play a central role in our physiology. By enabling flexible responses to new environments, mitochondria have helped humans adapt and evolve.

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St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists identify a mechanism that plays a key role in cellular organization and function and also offers a possible new treatment strategy for ALS and other degenerative disorders