Feature Channels: Cell Biology

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Desmoplastic melanoma is a rare subtype of melanoma that is commonly found on sun-exposed areas, such as the head and neck, and usually seen in older patients. Treatment is difficult because these tumors are often resistant to chemotherapy and lack actionable mutations commonly found in other types of melanoma that are targeted by specific drugs. However, Moffitt Cancer Center researchers report in the Jan. 10 issue of Nature that patients with desmoplastic melanoma are more responsive to immune-activating anti-PD-1/PD-L1 therapies than previously assumed.

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Defects in mitochondria, the tiny structures that power our cells by functioning as biological batteries, cause an array of complex, often life-threatening disorders that can affect any and all organs and systems. In the absence of validated, effective drug treatments, patients with mitochondrial disease often take a variety of vitamins and supplements, substances that are largely unstandardized, unregulated, and unproven. A group of medical experts recommend performing systematic scientific studies to test precise nutritional interventions for patients.

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A new study shows how stress accelerates pancreatic cancer development. Beta-blockers, which block stress hormones, may increase survival for patients with the disease.

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A Michigan State University researcher is providing new insight into how certain types of stress interact with immune cells and can regulate how these cells respond to allergens, ultimately causing physical symptoms and disease.

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“Decorating” cardiac stem cells with platelet nanovesicles can increase the stem cells’ ability to find and remain at the site of heart attack injury and enhance their effectiveness in treatment.

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Biological clocks throughout the body play a major role in human health and performance. Now, Texas A&M University researchers found that circadian rhythms could hold the key to novel therapies for glioblastoma, the most prevalent type of brain cancer in adults—and one with a grim prognosis.

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January 2018 issue of SOT journal honors the publication's 20-year history and features the newest, groundbreaking research in toxicology.

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While refining ways to grow arterial endothelial cells in the lab, a regenerative biology team at the Morgridge Institute for Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison unexpectedly unearthed a powerful new model for studying a hallmark of vascular disease.

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Cancer cells can be destroyed more effectively and selectively with a unique new reusable treatment, activated with a substance found in stinging nettles and ants - thanks to new research by the University of Warwick.

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Scientists at the Keck School of Medicine of USC use enzymes responsible for marine animal bioluminescence to help researchers test whether cancer immunotherapies work.

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The most commonly used gene expression profile test, Oncotype DX®, used to help predict breast cancer recurrence may not be as cost-effective as once thought, say a team of researchers.

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St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital oncologists have discovered the cell type that gives rise to rhabdomyosarcoma, the most prevalent soft tissue cancer in children. Previously, scientists thought the cancer arose from immature muscle cells, because the tumor resembled muscle under the microscope. However, the St. Jude researchers discovered the cancer arises from immature progenitors that would normally develop into cells lining blood vessels.

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Following the chemistry, scientists develop fascinating new theory for how life on Earth may have begun.

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New models identify factors that put coral reefs at risk of extinction in the face of climate change, and suggest that facilitating migration of corals could allow reefs to adapt. The results of this research will be presented at the annual conference of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology in San Francisco, CA on January 7, 2018.

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Newly described stretches of super-silenced DNA reveal a fresh approach to reprogram cell identity to use in regenerative medicine studies and one day in the clinic.

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A multidisciplinary team led by Scott Rodeo, MD, and Christopher Mendias, PhD, at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) has been awarded the Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation (OREF) Clinical Research Grant in Cellular Therapy.

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Researchers at Indiana University School of Medicine have successfully developed a method to grow hairy skin from mouse pluripotent stem cells—a discovery that could lead to new approaches to model disease and new therapies for the treatment of skin disorders and cancers.

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New research shows that inflammation was modified by uterine decidual cells to facilitate implantation in placental mammals. The results of this study will be presented at the annual conference of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology in San Francisco, CA on January 5, 2018.

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Compared to younger adults, older people have higher rates of complications from surgery. But many problems can be avoided by intervening with assessments and risk-reduction strategies before, during and after procedures.

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Individuals who have been treated for cancer are at risk for a complication called lymphedema: swelling in the body region where lymph nodes were removed, causing pain and limited function. New research and insights on the management of cancer-related lymphedema are presented in the January special issue of Rehabilitation Oncology, official journal of the Oncology Section of the American Physical Therapy Association. The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer.

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Christiana Care Health System is joining the Strata Precision Oncology Network to offer next-generation tumor profiling at no cost to patients with advanced or rare cancers. Based on the results, eligible patients will be matched to the best available clinical trials or most innovative therapy. The project begins on Feb. 1, 2018.

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Scientists have sequenced the complete genome of an ancient strain of Hepatitis B, shedding new light on a pathogen that today kills nearly one million people every year. The findings, based on data extracted from the mummified remains of a small child buried in Naples, Italy, confirm the idea that HBV has existed in humans for centuries.

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Two research groups from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have independently discovered a genetic mechanism in cancer cells that influences whether they resist or respond to immunotherapy drugs known as checkpoint inhibitors. The scientists say the findings reveal potential new drug targets and might aid efforts to extend the benefits of immunotherapy treatment to more patients and additional types of cancer.

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Specific strains of intestinal bacteria can improve the response rate to immunotherapy for patients being treated for advanced melanoma. Patients with a higher ratio of “beneficial” bacteria to “non-beneficial” bacteria all showed a clinical response: a reduction in tumor size.

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The Eveland laboratory’s research findings, “Brassinosteroids modulate meristem fate and differentiation of unique inflorescence morphology in Setaria viridis”, were recently published in the journal The Plant Cell.

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A new genetic-based model may explain how a common form of early-stage breast cancer known as ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) progresses to a more invasive form of cancer say researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

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For the first time, UNC School of Medicine scientists and collaborators solved the crystal structure of the activated kappa opioid receptor bound to a morphine derivative. They then created a new drug-like compound that activates only that receptor, a key step in the development of new pain meds.

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Despite decades of clinical research establishing chemotherapy with thoracic radiation as the standard-of-care for the initial management of non-metastatic small-cell lung cancer (SCLC), a large percentage of U.S. patients do not receive these treatments and in turn have lower overall survival, according to research from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

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Researchers at UC San Diego have developed macrophage "nanosponges"—nanoparticles cloaked in the cell membranes of macrophages—that can safely remove sepsis-causing molecules from the bloodstream. In lab tests, these macrophage nanosponges improved survival rates in mice with sepsis.

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A new article co-authored by Boise State Assistant Professor Neil Carter found that conservationists have wide-ranging viewpoints on how to best preserve and coexist with large carnivores, such as brown bears, gray wolves and tigers. These animals are considered to be at the top of their food chain in their native habitats.

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In a commentary published in the Jan. 4 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, UC Davis researcher William Murphy expressed cautious optimism about efforts to genetically engineer hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) to temporarily resist cell death during transplantation. While these gene therapy approaches could dramatically improve patient outcomes, Murphy argues that their risks must be carefully studied in diverse models.

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Similar to roadways across the country, every cell in our body has a network of paths, and a professor at Texas A&M University has zoomed in to the molecular level to research the proteins that travel along this transportation system.

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Researchers at the University of Georgia have now shown that the enzyme that makes the El Tor family of V. cholerae resistant to those antibiotics has a different mechanism of action from any comparable proteins observed in bacteria so far. Understanding that mechanism better equips researchers to overcome the challenge it presents in a world with increasing antibiotic resistance. The results of this research are published in the Dec. 22, 2017 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

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Today’s graduate biomedical science education system is in need of comprehensive reform, two researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health argue in a new paper.

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Scientists at the National Eye Institute (NEI), part of the National Institutes of Health, report that tiny tube-like protrusions called primary cilia on cells of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE)—a layer of cells in the back of the eye—are essential for the survival of the retina’s light-sensing photoreceptors. The discovery has advanced efforts to make stem cell-derived RPE for transplantation into patients with geographic atrophy, otherwise known as dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of blindness in the U.S. The study appears in the January 2 Cell Reports.

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Researchers have applied Nobel prize-winning microscope technology to uncover an ion channel structure that could lead to new treatments for kidney stones. In a recent study published in Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, researchers revealed atomic-level details of the protein that serves as a passageway for calcium across kidney cell membranes.

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Working with a simple mathematical model in which chance plays a key role, researchers Steve Strogatz and Bertrand Ottino-Loofler calculated how long it would take a bacterial infection or cancer cell to take over a network of healthy cells. The distribution of incubation times in most cases, they contend, is close to “lognormal” – meaning that the logarithms of the incubation periods, rather than the incubation periods themselves, are normally distributed.

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Half of sepsis survivors never fully recover; Dr. Derek Angus lays out an approach to change that.

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Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered a cell signaling pathway in mice that triggers vision loss in patients with diabetic retinopathy and retinal vein occlusion – diseases characterized by the closure of blood vessels in the retina, leading to blindness. In experiments that suppressed vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in the eye, researchers were able to re-establish normal blood flow in the retina, offering a potential means of stalling or even reversing diabetes-related blindness.

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Researchers identified a new, more sensitive screening test to recognize Pompe disease, a metabolic disorder affecting cellular processing of glycogen in numerous tissues of the body.

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Mount Sinai researchers have discovered that normal immune cells called macrophages, which reside in healthy breast tissue surrounding milk ducts, play a major role in helping early breast cancer cells leave the breast for other parts of the body, potentially creating metastasis before a tumor has even developed, according to a study published in Nature Communications.

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Through gene therapy, researchers engineered blood-forming stem cells (hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells, or HSPCs) to carry chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) genes to make cells that can detect and destroy HIV-infected cells. These engineered cells persisted for more than two years

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Nobel laureate Kurt Wüthrich investigates the structure of an important drug target.

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Research shows that missense mutations in a cluster of just five codons in the NF1 gene are an important risk factor for severe symptoms of the genetic disease neurofibromatosis type 1. Such information is vital to help guide clinical management and genetic counseling in this complex disease.

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The proteasome inhibitor carfilzomib has taken on an increasing role in the treatment of multiple myeloma, but new research from the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania shows the therapy comes with the risk of cardiovascular problems in a higher than expected percentage of patients.

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New research published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine highlights the pernicious effect of obesity on the long-term health of blood-making stem cells (hematopoietic stem cells). Published Dec. 27 and conducted largely in genetic models of obese mice, the study shows obesity causes durable and harmful changes to the hematopoietic stem cell compartment – the blood-making factory in our bodies.

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Helper T cells move toward inflamed tissue using membrane protrusions that stabilize them and provide traction on the vasculature. Using high-resolution microscopy and global molecular analysis, the team shows that immature T cells lack these protrusions but that maturing T-cells switch on a gene expression program to create material to construct them.

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Gene expression in specific cells and in specific regions can provide a more precise, neuroprotective approach than traditional treatments

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A new study by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers identified the structural basis for how tightly bound protein complexes are broken apart to become inactivated.

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Identifying complex mutations in the structure of an organism’s genome has been difficult. But in a new study published online in Nature Genetics, a research team led by J.J. Emerson, assistant professor of ecology & evolutionary biology at the Ayala School of Biological Sciences, applies new methods of genome analysis to identify these complex mutations with unprecedented resolution.