The specific mechanisms by which humans and other animals are able to discriminate between disease-causing microbes and innocuous ones in order to rapidly respond to infections have long been a mystery to scientists. But a study conducted on roundworms by biologists at UC San Diego has uncovered some important clues to finally answering that question.
A UNC-led team of scientists finds that transcription factors don’t act like an ‘on-off’ switch, but instead can exhibit much more complex binding behavior.
New research from The Ohio State University utilizes two different methods to visualize circulating tumor cells (CTCs) as well as other unusual circulating cells with both epithelial and hematopoietic characteristics in metastatic breast cancer (mBC). Results of the data were presented during a poster session at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2012 in Chicago, Ill. The research is supported by pilot funding from the Ohio State Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS).
Cells on the move reach forward with lamellipodia and filopodia, cytoplasmic sheets and rods supported by branched networks or tight bundles of actin filaments. Cells without functional lamellipodia are still highly motile but lose their ability to stay on track, report researchers at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in the April 9, 2012, online issue of the Journal of Cell Biology.
Heart cells starved of nutrients are less likely to be damaged during periods of decreased blood flow and sudden influxes of blood, known as ischemia and reperfusion, and are also less likely to get out of synch with their cellular neighbors, the damaging phenomenon called arrhythmia.
Salk researchers find molecular switch that controls liver glucose production and may represent a new avenue for treating insulin-resistant type II diabetes.
Computer scientists and biologists in the Data Science Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a rare collaboration between the two very different fields to pick apart a fundamental roadblock to progress in modern medicine. Their unique partnership has uncovered a new computational model called “cell graphs” that links the structure of human tissue to its corresponding biological function. The tool is a promising step in the effort to bring the power of computational science together with traditional biology to the fight against human diseases such as cancer.
A second mutation found in the tumors of patients with BRAF-mutated metastatic melanoma does not contribute to resistance to BRAF inhibitor drugs, a finding that runs counter to what scientists expected to be true.
Certain genes and proteins that promote growth and development of embryos also play a surprising role in sending chemical signals that help adults learn, remember, forget and perhaps become addicted, University of Utah biologists have discovered.
New biological research reveals how an invading virus hijacks a cell’s workings by imitating a signaling marker to defeat the body’s defenses. By manipulating cell signals, the virus destroys a defensive protein designed to inhibit it.
Few molecules are more interesting than DNA—except of course RNA. After two decades of research, that “other macromolecule” is no longer considered a mere messenger between glamorous DNA and protein-synthesizing machines. We now know that RNA has been leading a secret life, regulating gene expression and partnering with proteins to form catalytic ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complexes.
UCLA scientists have pinpointed a new mechanism that potently activates T-cells to fight leprosy. Specifically, the team studied how immune cells located at the site of infection, called dendritic cells, become more specialized to fight leprosy. Dendritic cells deliver key information about an invading pathogen that helps activate the T-cells in launching a more effective attack. The finding may have applications in combating other infectious diseases and cancer.
Experimenting with cells in culture, researchers at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center have breathed possible new life into two drugs once considered too toxic for human cancer treatment. The drugs, azacitidine (AZA) and decitabine (DAC), are epigenetic-targeted drugs and work to correct cancer-causing alterations that modify DNA.
Sanford Health Children’s Research Center researcher, Kyle Roux, PhD, has revealed a new method of research that will allow the cause of disease—particularly rare diseases—to become more easily identified. Called BioID, this method identifies the proximity and interactions between proteins in living cells providing insight into the underlying mechanisms of disease. Ultimately, this method could lead to the development of more targeted therapeutic or novel treatments for patients.
A research team led by University of Illinois at Chicago chemistry professor Wonhwa Cho is learning how the fat molecules within cell membranes help the cells' signaling proteins to assemble and function. Their initial findings, reported in Molecular Cell, suggest the lipids play an important role in regulating cellular protein interactions.
Worm model of back-up telomere repair strategy could speed identification of anti-cancer drugs.
UC Merced researchers show that a protein found in humans stops regeneration when disabled in planaria, providing a potential strategy for preventing the growth of cancer cells
Identification of a non-traditional pathway for spiriting a cancer-promoting protein into the cell nucleus points to a possible combination therapy for esophageal cancer and indicates a mechanism of resistance for new drugs that attack the Hedgehog pathway.
With every meal, immune cells in the intestine stand like sentries at a citadel, turning away harmful bacteria but allowing vitamins and nutrients to pass. Now, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified the cells that chaperone food antigens, or proteins, in the intestine so that the immune system doesn’t mount an attack. Their discovery provides scientists with a potential target for therapies against inflammatory bowel disease, celiac disease and food allergies.
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Biologist Lee Ligon has found a previously unknown connection between breast cancer tumor cells and the surrounding healthy tissue. The results provide new information on the earliest stages of breast cancer metastasis.
A research team has reprogrammed skin cells to identify epigenetic signatures that regulate the expression of a protein critical for repair of non-healing wounds. Identification of these signatures holds promise for future research aimed at applying these cells for personalized tissue regeneration.
A University of Michigan cell biologist and his colleagues have identified a potential drug that speeds up trash removal from the cell's recycling center, the lysosome.
Researchers at the UCLA stem cell center and the departments of chemistry and biochemistry and pathology and laboratory medicine have identified, for the first time, a generic way to correct mutations in human mitochondrial DNA by targeting corrective RNAs, a finding with implications for treating a host of mitochondrial diseases.
The well-being of living cells requires specialized squads of proteins that maintain order. Degraders chew up worn-out proteins, recyclers wrap up damaged organelles, and-most importantly-DNA repair crews restitch anything that resembles a broken chromosome. If repair is impossible, the crew foreman calls in executioners to annihilate a cell. As unsavory as this last bunch sounds, failure to summon them is one aspect of what makes a cancer cell a cancer cell.
UCLA stem cell researchers have shown that insulin and nutrition keep blood stem cells from differentiating into mature blood cells in Drosophila, the common fruit fly, a finding that has implications for studying inflammatory response and blood development in response to dietary changes in humans.
Cedars-Sinai researchers have unlocked the mystery of how an inflammatory molecule is produced in the body, a discovery they say could lead to advances in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, Type 2 diabetes and numerous other chronic diseases that affect tens of millions of people.
The hair cells of the inner ear have a previously unknown "root" extension that may allow them to communicate with nerve cells and the brain to regulate sensitivity to sound vibrations and head position, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine have discovered.
By engineering cells to express a modified RNA called "Spinach," researchers have imaged small-molecule metabolites in living cells and observed how their levels change over time. Metabolites are the products of individual cell metabolism. The ability to measure their rate of production could be used to recognize a cell gone metabolically awry, as in cancer, or identify the drug that can restore the cell's metabolites to normal.
In the war against obesity, one’s own fat cells may seem an unlikely ally, but new research from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) suggests ordinary fat cells can be reengineered to burn calories.
Chronic stress has a more powerful effect on the brain during adolescence than in adulthood and now there’s proof at the molecular level, according to findings published in Neuron by University at Buffalo researchers.
Researchers at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine demonstrated that nitrogen balance, the process of utilizing amino acids and disposing of their toxic byproducts, occurs with a precise 24-hour rhythm – also known as circadian rhythm – in mammals.
A small, early-phase clinical trial to test the effectiveness of treating patients with advanced melanoma using billions of clones of their own tumor-fighting cells combined with a specific type of chemotherapy has shown that the approach has promise. One patient of the 11 experienced a long-term, complete remission that has lasted more than three years, and in four others with progressive disease, the melanoma temporarily stopped growing. The results of the study are published in the Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences for the week of March 5.
Studying tiny bits of genetic material that control protein formation in the brain, Johns Hopkins scientists say they have new clues to how memories are made and how drugs might someday be used to stop disruptions in the process that lead to mental illness and brain wasting diseases.
Indiana University biologists have found that specific types of RNA polymerase enzymes, the molecular machines that convert DNA into RNA, can differ in function based on variation in the parts -- in this case protein subunits -- used to assemble those machines.
UCLA stem cell researchers have discovered a critical placental niche cell and signaling pathway that prevent blood precursors from premature differentiation in the placenta, a process necessary for ensuring proper blood supply for an individual’s lifetime.
A team of UNC researchers has explained for the first time how a long-studied protein complex affects cell migration and how external cues affect cell’s ability to migrate.
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine have found that a molecule found at elevated levels in cancer cells seems to protect them from the "cell-suicide" that is usually triggered by chemotherapy or radiation.
Working in the emerging field of systems biology, UT Southwestern researchers mathematically predicted how bacteria that cause food poisoning hijack a cell’s sense of direction and then confirmed those predictions in living cells.
Mitochondria -- subunits inside cells that produce energy -- have long been thought to play a role in Alzheimer’s disease.
Research reveals new clues about cell function.
UT MD Anderson scientists find molecular path of protein associated with hard-to-treat cancers.
Pediatric and Developmental Pathology – Gonadal dysgenesis—defective development of the ovaries or testes— may also bring with it an increased risk of gonadal tumors. A recent discovery at the histologic level could help identify cells at risk of conversion into a tumor. For patients with XY gonadal dysgenesis, this means earlier detection and treatment of tumors.
In a standard biology textbook, cells tend to look more or less the same from all sides. But in real life cells have fronts and backs, tops and bottoms, and they orient many of their structures according to this polarity explaining, for example, why yeast cells bud at one end and not the other.
What if we could engineer a liver or kidney from a patient's own stem cells? How about helping regenerate tissue damaged by diseases such as osteoporosis and arthritis? A new UCLA study bring scientists a little closer to these possibilities by providing a better understanding how tissue is formed and organized in the body.
Drugs targeting an enzyme involved in inflammation might offer a new avenue for treating certain lung cancers, according to a new study by scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.
A team of scientists from Whitehead Institute and other institutions has shown for the first time how two long intergenic noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) in brewer’s yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) contribute to a location-dependent switch for the yeast FLO11 gene to toggle between active and inactive states. The mechanism of the FLO11 switch is one of only a handful that have been characterized in detail, and will serve as a model for how other ncRNAs operate.
Although the process of mitotic cell division has been studied intensely for more than 50 years, Whitehead Institute researchers have only now solved the mystery of how cells correctly align their chromosomes during symmetric mitosis.
Researchers at the Salk Institute have discovered a startling feature of early brain development that helps to explain how complex neuron wiring patterns are programmed using just a handful of critical genes. The findings, published February 3 in Cell, may help scientists develop new therapies for neurological disorders, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and provide insight into certain cancers.
Obstacles in an organism’s path can help it to move faster, not slower, researchers from New York University’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences have found through a series of experiments and computer simulations. Their findings have implications for a better understanding of basic locomotion strategies found in biology, and the survival and propagation of the parasite that causes malaria.
University of Utah biologists found new evidence why mice, people and other vertebrate animals carry thousands of varieties of genes to make immune-system proteins named MHCs – even though some of those genes make us sick.
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