Scientists have discovered that neurons are risk takers: They use minor “DNA surgeries” to toggle their activity levels all day, every day. Since these activity levels are important in learning, memory and brain disorders, the researchers think their finding will shed light on a range of important questions.
Researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center have discovered that mitochondria, the major energy source for most cells, also play an important role in stem cell development — a purpose notably distinct from the tiny organelle’s traditional job as the cell’s main source of the adenosine triphosphate (ATP) energy needed for routine cell metabolism.
A protein that normally fosters tissue repair instead acts to inhibit healing when sugar levels are high. The role reversal helps explain why wounds heal slowly in people with diabetes.
Stem cells naturally cling to feeder cells as they grow in petri dishes. Scientists have thought for years that this attachment occurs because feeder cells serve as a support system, providing stems cells with essential nutrients.
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An enzyme secreted by the body’s fat tissue controls energy levels in the brain, according to new research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The findings, in mice, underscore a role for the body’s fat tissue in controlling the brain’s response to food scarcity, and suggest there is an optimal amount of body fat for maximizing health and longevity.
For some time, cancer scientists have considered the toxin, alpha-amanatin derived from “death cap” mushrooms, as a possible cancer treatment. However, due to its penchant for causing liver toxicity, its potential as an effective therapy has been limited.
New research highlights how nerves – whether harmed by disease or traumatic injury – start to die, a discovery that unveils novel targets for developing drugs to slow or halt peripheral neuropathies and devastating neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
Researchers have unraveled the precise mechanism that cells in the carotid bodies use to detect oxygen levels in the blood and send signals through the carotid sinus nerve to stimulate or relax breathing rates.
The lab of Kristen Lynch, PhD studies how this splicing occurs in T cells and how it is regulated by multiple proteins. A new study describes a cascade of events that may explain changes in gene expression that occur during the development of the human immune system.
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Moores Cancer Center have discovered a molecular mechanism that connects breast tissue stiffness to tumor metastasis and poor prognosis. The study may inspire new approaches to predicting patient outcomes and halting tumor metastasis.
A new mathematical model that uses drug-target kinetics to predict how drugs work in vivo may provide a foundation to improve drug discovery, which is frequently hampered by the inability to predict effective doses of drugs. The discovery by Peter Tonge, a Professor of Chemistry and Radiology, and Director of Infectious Disease Research at the Institute for Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery (ICB & DD) at Stony Brook University, along with collaborators at Stony Brook University and AstraZeneca, will be published advanced online on April 20 in Nature Chemical Biology.
Understanding the molecular signals that guide early cells in the embryo to develop into different types of organs provides insight into how tissues regenerate and repair themselves. By knowing the principles that underlie the intricate steps in this transformation, researchers will be able to make new cells at will for transplantation and tissue repair in such situations as liver or heart disease.
Cell biologists at Johns Hopkins designed several molecular tools that allowed them to watch, measure and manipulate the activity of the enzyme AMPK in individual compartments within the cell. The new tools have confirmed that at least some of AMPK’s ability to multitask comes from variations in its activity level in each cellular compartment.
Bacteria, which we so often fight, have an immune system, too – in their case, to fight off invasive viruses called phages. Like any immune system, its first challenge is to distinguish between “foreign” and “self.” A Weizmann Institute of Science and Tel Aviv University team has now revealed exactly how bacteria are able to do this.
Cardiovascular diseases are a major cause of death worldwide, in part because heart cells don’t renew – except during a very small window early in life. In a breakthrough, a team of researchers that included the Weizmann Institute, Chaim Sheba Medical Center, and the University of South Wales gets mouse heart cells to take a step backwards… and be renewed.
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Lesions in DNA can occur as often as 100,000 times per cell per day. They can be the result of normal metabolic activities, like free radicals, as well as exposure to environmental factors such as UV radiation, X-rays and chemical compounds. Saint Louis University researchers share a discovery that explains how cells use a process called replication fork reversal in order to deal with these roadblocks and transmit accurate genetic data.
Research led by the University of Michigan Life Sciences Institute has identified a gene critical to controlling the body's ability to create blood cells and immune cells from blood-forming stem cells—known as hematopoietic stem cells.
A new collaborative study describes a way that lung tissue can regenerate after injury. The team found that lung tissue has more dexterity in repairing tissue than once thought.
Researchers reveal how a protein linked to Meckel syndrome and other human diseases regulates the membrane composition of cilia, finger-like projections on the surface of cells that communicate signals.
A family of proteins called G proteins are a recognized component of the communication system the human body uses to sense hormones and other chemicals in the bloodstream and to send messages to cells. In work that further illuminates how cells work, researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have discovered a new role for G proteins that may have relevance to halting solid tumor cancer metastasis.
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Uncovering cellular response to stress may provide leverage to determine how to trick undesirable cells, such as cancer or damaged cells, into dying instead of recovering from stress.
Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have identified a molecule in the brain that triggers schizophrenia-like behaviors, brain changes and global gene expression in an animal model. The research gives scientists new tools for someday preventing or treating psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and autism.
We age in part thanks to “friendly fire” from the immune system — inflammation and chemically active molecules called reactive oxygen species that help fight infection, but also wreak molecular havoc, contributing to frailty, disability and disease. The CD33rSiglec family of proteins are known to help protect our cells from becoming inflammatory collateral damage, prompting researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine to ask whether CD33rSiglecs might help mammals live longer, too.
Inside the microscopic world of the mouse hair follicle, Yale Cancer Center researchers have discovered big clues about how stem cells regenerate and die. These findings, reported in the journal Nature, could lead to a better understanding of how the stem cell pool is maintained or altered in tissues throughout the body.
What happens in the moments just before death is widely believed to be a slowdown of the body’s systems as the heart stops beating and blood flow ends. But there's a brainstorm happening, strongly synchronized with heart rhythm. Blocking this brain outflow may change the odds of survival for those who suffer cardiac arrest.
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University of Illinois researchers found that Sulfolobus islandicus can go dormant, ceasing to grow and reproduce, in order to protect themselves from infection by Sulfolobus spindle-shaped virus 9 (SSV9). The dormant microbes are able to recover if the virus goes away within 24 to 48 hours—otherwise they die.
A team of Whitehead Institute scientists has discovered that during division, stem cells distinguish between old and young mitochondria and allocate them disproportionately between daughter cells.
By engineering antibacterial enzymes, Dartmouth investigators led by Karl Griswold, PhD are using novel strategies to target the prevalent drug-resistant bacterium Staphylococcus aureus.
A particular molecular pathway permits stem cells in pediatric bone cancers to grow rapidly and aggressively, according to researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center and its Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center.
Lung diseases like emphysema and pulmonary fibrosis are common among people with malfunctioning telomeres, the “caps” or ends of chromosomes. Now, researchers from Johns Hopkins say they have discovered what goes wrong and why.
A new study out of West Virginia University suggests antioxidants may play a key role in reducing the long-term effects of concussions and could potentially offer a unique new approach for treatment.
A team led by James Eberwine was named one of 16 finalists in the first phase of the Follow that Cell Challenge funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Researchers at UC Davis have illuminated an important distinction between mice and humans: how human livers heal. The difference centers on a protein called PPARα, which activates liver regeneration. Normally, mouse PPARα is far more active and efficient than the human form, allowing mice to quickly regenerate damaged livers. However, the research shows that protein fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) can boost the regenerative effects of human PPARα. The findings suggest that the molecule could offer significant therapeutic benefits for patients who have had a liver transplant or suffer from liver disease. The study was published in the journal Oncotarget.
Researchers at the Mechanobiology Institute (MBI) at the National University of Singapore have discovered that the inherent ‘handedness’ of molecular structures directs the behaviour of individual cells and confers them the ability to sense the difference between left and right. This is a significant step forward in the understanding of cellular biology.
Research has discovered a role for prolactin, the hormone that stimulates milk production in nursing mothers, in the bond between parents. The study on cotton-top tamarins found a link between prolactin levels and sexual activity and cuddling among paired adults. Although this was a first for prolactin, it has previously been found for oxytocin, a hormone that stimulates childbirth and is linked to a range of pleasurable emotions.
Yale researchers have uncovered new details about the relationship between two proteins associated with the formation of cerebral cavernous malformations, a little understood neurovascular disorder.
An international team of more than 18 research groups has demonstrated that the compounds they developed can safely prevent harmful protein aggregation in preliminary tests using animals. The findings raise hope that a new class of drugs may be on the horizon for the more than 30 diseases and conditions that involve protein aggregation, including diabetes, cancer, spinal cord injury, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
The motion of coins in a “Penny Pusher” carnival game is similar to the movement of cells in the eye’s lens, as described in a new study published in Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science (IOVS). This new insight may help scientists understand how the eye maintains its precise shape — critical for clear vision — and how cataracts develop.
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have discovered a control switch for the unfolded protein response (UPR), a cellular stress relief mechanism drawing major scientific interest because of its role in cancer, diabetes, inflammatory disorders and several neural degenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).