A decade after first identifying serum amyloid P (SAP) as a key protein in human blood that controls routine tissue-related processes from scarring to healing, two Texas A&M University scientists continue to make encouraging progress in the fight against fibrotic disease.
Building upon previous research, scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Veteran’s Affairs San Diego Healthcare System report that neurons derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) and grafted into rats after a spinal cord injury produced cells with tens of thousands of axons extending virtually the entire length of the animals’ central nervous system.
New research partly led by UC San Francisco-affiliated scientists suggests that one in 10 cancer patients would be more accurately diagnosed if their tumors were defined by cellular and molecular criteria rather than by the tissues in which they originated, and that this information, in turn, could lead to more appropriate treatments.
UC San Francisco researchers have identified cells’ unique features within the developing human brain, using the latest technologies for analyzing gene activity in individual cells, and have demonstrated that large-scale cell surveys can be done much more efficiently and cheaply than was previously thought possible.
Journalists are invited to participate in a "Newswise Live Event" this Thursday and join Nobel laureate Dan Shechtman and a distinguished panel of crystallography experts who will detail new discoveries and describe some of the international activities in 2014, a special year for this field.
Healthy breast cells may be able to reinvent themselves -- some have the flexibility to change after they are mature -- which leads researchers to postulate that similarities exist between this occurrence and the origins of a particularly aggressive type of breast cancer.
One protein with the even more out-there name of ZEB1 (zinc finger E-box binding homeobox 1), is now thought to keep breast cancer cells from being successfully treated with radiation therapy, according to a study at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
Crafty parasites undergo dramatic shape changes that enable them to adapt to different living conditions and thrive. Researchers show that these transformations might not be as difficult as they appear.
While developing an important cancer drug, Wistar scientists discovered that mice without the TRAP-1 protein live healthier longer lives, with fewer tumors and signs of aging.
Biologists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have identified a signaling pathway that switches on a powerful calorie-burning process in brown fat cells.
In a study published today in Genes & Development, Dr Christian Speck from the MRC Clinical Sciences Centre’s DNA Replication group, in collaboration with Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), New York, reveal the intricate mechanisms involved in the enzyme that governs DNA duplication during cell division.
Long associated with enabling the proliferation of cancer cells, the ancient cellular survival response regulated by Heat-Shock Factor 1 (HSF1) can also turn neighboring cells in their environment into co-conspirators that support malignant progression and metastasis. implications for the diagnosis, prognosis, and management of cancer patients.
The immune system ages and weakens with time, making the elderly prone to life-threatening infection and other maladies, and a UC San Francisco research team now has discovered a reason why.
A new study from UC San Francisco is the first to show that while the impact of life’s stressors accumulate overtime and accelerate cellular aging, these negative effects may be reduced by maintaining a healthy diet, exercising and sleeping well.
Most cells do not divide unless there is enough oxygen present to support their offspring, but certain cancer cells and other cell types circumvent this rule. Researchers have now identified a mechanism that overrides the cells’ warning signals, enabling cancers to continue to divide even without a robust blood supply.
Embryonic stem cell (ESC) research has been hampered by the inability to transfer research and tools from mouse ESC studies to their human counterparts, in part because human ESCs are “primed” and slightly less plastic than the mouse cells. Now researchers in the lab of Whitehead Institute Founding Member Rudolf Jaenisch have discovered how to manipulate and maintain human ESCs into a “naïve” or base pluripotent state similar to that of mouse ESCs without the use of any reprogramming factors.
Researchers at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, have identified the functions of two classes of pheromone receptors, and found pheromones crucial to triggering the mating process in mice.
Scientists at Joslin Diabetes Center now have created the first iPSCs that offer a human model of insulin resistance, a key driver of type 2 diabetes.
A protein that controls when genes are switched on or off plays a key role in specific areas of the brain to regulate metabolism, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found.
UNC's Henrik Dohlman is like a mechanic for cells. He takes them apart to see how they function. He can tell you what part is like a gas pedal and which part is like the brakes. Now he’s can show us why these brakes don’t work the same even in cells that are genetically identical.
Cold-blooded animals cannot regulate their body temperature, so their cells are stressed when facing temperature extremes. Worse still, even at slightly colder temperatures, some biological processes in the cell are slowed down more than others, which should throw the cells’ delicate chemical balance out of whack. Yet, those cells manage to keep their biological processes coordinated. Now researchers have found out how they do that.
Researchers at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Research Campus have developed a new computational method that can rapidly track the three-dimensional movements of cells in such data-rich images. Using the method, the Janelia scientists can essentially automate much of the time-consuming process of reconstructing an animal's developmental building plan cell by cell.
Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and their collaborators have found that ancient enzymes, known for their fundamental role in translating genetic information into proteins, evolved myriad other functions in humans.
The protein CENP-A, which is integrated into human DNA at the centromere on each chromosome, has a vital role in cell division. Work from Whitehead Institute Member Iain Cheeseman’s lab describes how the vital and tightly controlled replenishment of CENP-A progresses.
Study finds that the NBR1 protein plays a critical role in regulating obesity-induced inflammation that leads to metabolic disease. The findings suggest a new approach to targeting the inflammatory links between obesity and metabolic disease to prevent and treat type 2 diabetes.
A signaling pathway once thought to have little if any role during embryogenesis is a key player in the formation of the front-most portion of developing vertebrate embryos. Moreover, signals emanating from this region—referred to as the “extreme anterior domain” (EAD)—orchestrate the complex choreography that gives rise to proper facial structure.
A team of researchers has devised a Pac-Man-style power pellet that gets normally mild-mannered cells to gobble up their undesirable neighbors. The development may point the way to therapies that enlist patients’ own cells to better fend off infection and even cancer, the researchers say.
Circulating tumor cells spread ovarian cancer through the bloodstream, homing in on a sheath of abdominal fatty tissue where it can grow and metastasize to other organs, scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center report in Cancer Cell.
Researchers shed new light on key mechanism in accumulation of protein plaques in Alzheimer’s disease patients; could open new avenues for developing a cure for Alzheimer's disease, which affects 5.2 million in the U.S. alone.
Scientists have identified a protein that is essential to the survival of E. coli bacteria, and consider the protein a potential new target for antibiotics.
New research underway at KU Cancer Center is focusing on the mutant version of the p53 tumor protein and how it is vulnerable to certain compounds.
The results indicated that the science of pseudogene expression analysis may very well play a key role in explaining how cancer occurs by helping medical experts in the discovery of new biomarkers. The study’s findings appear in today’s issue of Nature Communications.
Research led by investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center helps explain the heat-generating properties of brown fat, a possible to key to weight loss.
Deep inside the brains of people with dementia and Lou Gehrig’s disease, globs of abnormal protein gum up the inner workings of brain cells – dooming them to an early death. But boosting those cells’ natural ability to clean up those clogs might hold the key to better treatment for such conditions.
A team of researchers from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) and Salk Institute for Biological Studies has shown for the first time that stem cells created using different methods produce differing cells. The findings, published in the July 2, 2014 online issue of Nature, provide new insights into the basic biology of stem cells and could ultimately lead to improved stem cell therapies.
The evolution of the ribosome, a large molecular structure found in the cells of all species, has been revealed in unprecedented detail in a new study.
Scientists with Texas A&M AgriLife Research have found a “Trojan horse” way to deliver proteins into live human cells without damaging them. The finding, published in this month’s Nature Methods, is expected to be easily adopted for use in medical research to find cures and treatments for a wide range of diseases, according to the team’s lead scientist, Dr. Jean-Philippe Pellois, an associate professor of biochemistry at Texas A&M University.
University of Washington researchers have shown that a favorable electrical property is present in a type of protein found in organs that repeatedly stretch and retract. These findings are the first that clearly track this phenomenon, called ferroelectricity, occurring at the molecular level in biological tissues.
Biologists at UC San Diego have found the “missing link” in the chemical system that enables animal cells to produce ribosomes—the thousands of protein “factories” contained within each cell that manufacture all of the proteins needed to build tissue and sustain life.
A team of scientists from Duke Medicine, the University of Michigan and Stanford University has determined the underlying architecture of a cellular signaling complex involved in the body’s response to stimuli such as light and pain.
Case Western Reserve University scientists have discovered how a family of proteins — cation diffusion facilitators (CDFs) — regulates an important cellular cycle where a cell’s energy generated is converted to necessary cellular functions. The finding could eventually to significant breakthroughs in the treatment of Parkinson’s, chronic liver disease and heart disease.
Researchers at The Johns Hopkins University report they have deciphered the inner workings of a protein called YiiP that prevents the lethal buildup of zinc inside bacteria. They say understanding YiiP’s movements will help in the design of drugs aimed at modifying the behavior of ZnT proteins, eight human proteins that are similar to YiiP, which play important roles in hormone secretion and in signaling between neurons.
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists have discovered how an important “on” switch is attached to the machinery that cells rely on to adapt thousands of proteins to meet changing conditions. The research appears in the current issue of the journal Cell.
Gene mutation sets off accumulation of unhealthy beta cells that can no longer produce insulin needed to control blood sugar. Researcher who lives with type 1 diabetes published genetic finding in Cell.
Pancreatic cancer tumors addicted to mutant Kras signaling for their growth and progression have a ready-made substitute to tap if they’re ever forced to go cold-turkey on the mutant oncogene, scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center report in the journal Cell.
Researchers at UAB have shed new light on how gliomas migrate in the brain. The findings show gliomas disrupt normal neural connections and hijack control of blood vessels. The study provides insight on how glioma cells spread throughout the brain and potentially offers a tantalizing opportunity for therapy.
For an organ that only functions for nine months, the placenta has been taking the science world by storm. One company that is banking on the therapeutic powers of the placenta is Pluristem Therapeutics, a key player in the regenerative medicine space.
Researchers have identified hundreds of long non-coding RNAs expressed in developing and adult lungs. Many of these non-protein-coding RNAs in the lung regulate gene expression by opening and closing the DNA scaffolding on neighboring genes.
Biologists at The Scripps Research Institute have discovered a crucial process that regulates development of blood vessels. The finding may lead to treatments for disorders involving abnormal blood vessel growth, including diabetic retinopathy and cancer.
Brain cells, called astrocytes because of their star-shaped appearance, can monitor and respond to nearby neural activity, but only after being activated by the fight-or-flight chemical norepinephrine. Because astrocytes can alter the activity of neurons, the findings suggest that astrocytes may help control the brain’s ability to focus.
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