Feature Channels: Cell Biology

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Scientists from the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have developed a new method to bioprint miniature tumor organoids that are designed to mimic the function and architecture of real tumors. The improved process allows researchers to use an advanced imaging method to study and analyze individual organoids in great detail, which can help researchers identify personalized treatments for people with rare or hard-to-treat cancers.

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Scientists from the National University of Singapore have invented a powerful tool that captures data on immune cell response at a single-cell level. This groundbreaking technique will accelerate the discovery of new immunotherapies to treat diseases such as cancer, autoimmune disorders, and infectious diseases.

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Research has shown that the immune system doesn’t function properly in patients with multiple myeloma, a blood cancer that occurs when plasma cells — a type of white blood cell — multiply out of control. But a clinical trial led by Jens Hillengass, MD, PhD, Chief of Myeloma at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, shows that exercise may have the power to strengthen the immune system in those patients, providing a non-pharmaceutical method of helping control the disease.

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Patients with early relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma had significantly improved overall survival when treated with the chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy axicabtagene ciloleucel (axi-cel) when compared to the current standard-of-care chemoimmunotherapy, according to results of the Phase III ZUMA-7 trial reported by researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

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According to the federal government’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, nearly 3 million people worldwide — with almost a third in the United States — are living with multiple sclerosis (MS), a disabling neurological disease in which the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks nerves feeding information to the central nervous system (the brain and spinal cord). Although rarely fatal, MS can lead to long-term disabilities, and impair movement, muscle control, vision and cognition.

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A tiny population of T-cells could serve as a much-needed biomarker—and a potential therapeutic target—for pediatric acute liver failure, according to new research from Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

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ASBMB travel awards support biomedical research projects and career development for trainees from Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Uruguay and Spain to work in labs in North America

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Researchers from the Center for Cognition and Sociality (CCS) within the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) recently announced the discovery of neurons that allow us to recognize others. The research team discovered that the neurons that deal with the information associated with different individuals are located in the CA1 region of the hippocampus.

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Despite getting “the munchies”, people who frequently use cannabis are leaner and less prone to diabetes than those who don’t. University of California, Irvine researchers have now uncovered a possible explanation for this paradox – and it’s not good news.

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Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital found key “on” switch, NLRP12, for innate immune cell death in diseases that cause red blood cells to rupture, which can lead to inflammation and multi-organ failure.

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Tumors are composed of rapidly multiplying cancer cells. Understanding which biochemical processes fuel their relentless growth can provide hints at therapeutic targets. Researchers from Washington University in St. Louis have developed a technology to study tumor growth in another dimension — literally. The scientists established a new method to watch what nutrients are used at which rates spatially throughout a tissue.

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Scientists at La Jolla Institute for Immunology show that T cells can recognize several different viral targets, called "antigens," shared between most coronaviruses, including common cold coronaviruses and SARS-CoV-2. They also looked more in-depth at what fragments of these antigens, called “epitopes,” are recognized and how conserved they are across different coronaviruses.

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Below are summaries of recent Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center research findings and other news. If you’re covering the American Society for Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting, June 2-6 in Chicago, Illinois, see our list of Fred Hutch research highlights at ASCO and contact [email protected] to set up interviews with experts.

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The human nucleus is metabolically active, according to the findings of a new study in Molecular Systems Biology by researchers at the CRG in Barcelona and CeMM/Medical University of Vienna.

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A team from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) has identified how the influenza A virus manages to penetrate cells to infect them.

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Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy amplifies the immune system’s ability to recognize and kill cancer cells. The first CAR T-cell therapy was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2017. Today, there are 6 FDA-approved CAR-based therapies to treat certain types of leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma, all of which are available at The University of Kansas Cancer Center.

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New research has unlocked insights into how “good fat” tissue could potentially be harnessed to combat obesity and remove glucose from the blood, helping to control diabetes. Published today in Science Advances, the work is a collaboration between researchers with the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and University of Cambridge, Free University of Brussels and University of East Anglia.

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A new study led by scientists at Uppsala University and INRAE/Université Paris-Saclay has discovered that the pro-viral host protein ZC3H11A plays a critical role in maintaining embryo viability during early development.

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Study suggests person-to-person transmission may not be the dominant mode of infection for an aggressive lung pathogen. Findings shed light on the behavior and mutation tendencies of a little-known microbe. The results should ease fears that the lung bacterium poses a grave threat for spread between individuals with compromised lung function who are waiting for lung transplants.

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The early stages of embryonic development contain many of life’s mysteries. Unlocking these mysteries can help us better understand early development and birth defects, and help develop new regenerative medicine treatments.

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A team of researchers from the Cancer Science Institute of Singapore (CSI Singapore) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) has discovered that a transcription factor, TOX2, was aberrantly increased in patients with Natural killer/T-cell lymphoma (NKTL). The increased TOX2 level leads to the growth and spread of NKTL, as well as the overproduction of PRL-3 – an oncogenic phosphatase that is a known key player in the survival and metastasis of several other types of cancers. This breakthrough discovery presents a potential novel therapeutic target to treat NKTL.

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A tangle of pockets, tubes and sac-like membrane structures runs through the cells of humans, animals, plants and fungi: the endoplasmic reticulum, or ER for short.

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Applying imaging technology to plant roots, researchers have developed a new understanding of chemicals that are responsible for plant growth. The chemical “roadmap” identifies where key molecules are distributed along corn roots and how their placement factors into the plant’s maturation.

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A new method than enables researchers to dial up or tone down the amount of a certain metastatic protein inhibitor (BACH1) within a cell could provide a new path in cancer research that reassesses the effectiveness of protein inhibitors to treat disease.

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In a new study, published in Nature Cell Biology, scientists at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) explored the location, function, gene expression, and metabolism of MAIT cells in the mouse lung.

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The discovery suggests that one possible approach to treat glioblastoma would be a therapy that targets the metabolic process in patients who have that genetic alteration.

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ASBMB announces a new cohort of 12 ASBMB Advocacy Training Program delegates who will learn about science policy and advocacy through this summer externship

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Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers say they have used artificial intelligence models and machine-learning algorithms to successfully predict which components of amino acids that make up therapeutic proteins are most likely to safely deliver therapeutic drugs to animal eye cells.

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Scientists report six structures of the Spns2 transporter, which is linked to cancer and other diseases, including while it is bound to a small molecule inhibitor, thus aiding future therapeutic design.

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A community study involving 101 participants aged between 38 to 91 years old has found that weekly 10-min exposure to very low levels of pulsed electromagnetic field using the BIXEPS device developed by researchers from the National University of Singapore significantly improves mobility, especially in the elderly. This painless therapy produces comparable results to exercise, and also improves body composition and reduces pain

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The latest space experiments from UC San Diego and Axiom Space will explore therapies for breast and colorectal cancer aboard the ISS, and monitor astronauts’ stem cell health over time.

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Every day, millions of cells die in our body. Other than generally assumed, cells do not simply burst at the end of their lives but rather, a specific protein serves as a breaking point for cell membrane rupture.

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UC San Diego scientists develop an interactive software that enables scientists to better investigate the DNA damage response.

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In a new study published in eLife, lead author Carolyn Elya, postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard, reveals the molecular and cellular underpinnings behind the parasitic fungus, Entomophthora muscae’s (E. muscae), ability to manipulate the behavior of fruit flies.

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Cairns joins renowned scientists as part of the Royal Society, known for its significant role in many scientific discoveries. Cairns is the second current faculty member elected at the U.

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Tissue engineering research has shown that a skin cell type could be a new therapeutic target to accelerate the healing of burns and possibly other wounds.

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DNA is well known as the blueprint of life, necessary for an organism to facilitate living processes. DNA can be damaged by various factors such as radical metabolites, radiation, and some toxic chemicals.

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Molecular clocks in our cells synchronize our bodies with the cycle of night and day, cue us for sleep and waking, and drive daily cycles in virtually every aspect of our physiology. Scientists studying the molecular mechanisms of our biological clocks have now identified a key event that controls the timing of the clock.

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A study led by researchers at the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center suggests that IL-21, a soluble molecule involved in activating the immune system, can be a potential therapeutic target to help reduce endocrine autoimmune side effects caused by checkpoint inhibitor cancer therapy.

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Researchers at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center have discovered a new nutrient source that pancreatic cancer cells use to grow. The molecule, uridine, offers insight into both biochemical processes and possible therapeutic pathways. The findings, published in Nature, show that cancer cells can adapt when they don’t have access to glucose.