Biomedical engineers and medical researchers at UNSW Sydney have independently made discoveries about embryonic blood stem cell creation that could one day eliminate the need for blood stem cell donors.
Obesity can give rise to a variety of health concerns. Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH)—a type of fatty liver disease that might progress to cancer—is particularly prevalent among obese people.
A fungus that is a common cause of fungal meningitis undergoes a remarkable transformation once it enters the body, allowing it to infect the brain, according to new research by scientists at University of Utah Health. Studies in mice show that as the fungal intruder travels through the body, it shrinks and acquires characteristics that help infection to spread, all in a matter of days. The discovery could lead to new strategies for blocking Cryptococcus neoformans infection
and preventing detrimental effects on the host.
A team of researchers has discovered a way to convert 100% of carbon dioxide captured from industrial exhaust into ethylene, a key building block for plastic products.
Researchers from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) used advanced three-dimensional mapping techniques at a microscopic level to identify a multitude of genetic variants and corresponding target gene pairings in the pancreas that are implicated in type 2 diabetes. In addition to these discoveries, the resulting datasets will serve as a key resource for researchers all over the world to delve deeper into the genetic origins of type 2 diabetes and further explore the roles of different types of cells in the development of the disease.
The researchers discovered that in both the auditory cortex and posterior parietal cortex, when somatostatin neurons became active, other nearby somatostatin neurons activated as well. But the distance over which somatostatin neurons shared activity expanded in the posterior parietal cortex.
Studies suggest that Insulin-Like Growth Factor (IGF) plays a central role in pathological growth of proliferative conditions like cancer, and may function as a resistance mechanism adopted by the majority of solid cancers following therapeutic targeting of non-IGF signaling pathways.
Scientists from the Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST), Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute international, and Tamagawa University have demonstrated that obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) can be understood as a result of imbalanced learning between reinforcement and punishment.
Using publicly available data on COVID variant rates, researchers from the University of Hawai'i are investigating how mutations in the virus' genome impact its ability to spread and weaken immune responses.
Investigators from Cedars-Sinai Cancer have discovered that cancerous tumors called soft-tissue sarcomas produce a protein that switches immune cells from tumor-attacking to tumor-promoting. The study, published today in the peer-reviewed journal Cell Reports, could lead to improved treatments for soft-tissue sarcomas.
When female mosquitoes are looking for a human to bite, they smell a unique cocktail of body odors that we emit into the air. These odors then stimulate receptors in the mosquitoes’ antenna.
Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), published a new paper in Cell Reports Medicine demonstrating the protective potential of multiple doses of the Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine against COVID-19 and other infectious diseases.
Researchers at McMaster University have found a class of well-known antiviral drugs could be part of a one-two punch to treat seasonal influenza and prevent a flu pandemic when used in combination with antibody therapies.
Researchers in the Biomedical Engineering Department at UConn have developed a new cardiac cell-derived platform that closely mimics the human heart, unlocking potential for more thorough preclinical drug development and testing, and model for cardiac diseases.
Most people in the United States have some degree of immune protection against Covid-19, either from vaccination, infection, or a combination of the two. But, just how much protection does any individual person have?
Cedars-Sinai investigators have created bio-realistic and complex computer models of individual brain cells—in unparalleled quantity. Their research, published today in the peer-reviewed journal Cell Reports, details how these models could one day answer questions about neurological disorders—and even human intellect—that aren’t possible to explore through biological experiments.
Is brain fog a condition limited to humans? “Infectious disease and cognition in wild populations,” a recently published paper in Trends in Ecology & Evolution, answers that question.
One of the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease is a reduction in the firing of some neurons in the brain, which contributes to the cognitive decline that patients experience. A new study from MIT shows how a type of cells called microglia contribute to this slowdown of neuron activity.
Investigators at Cedars-Sinai and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) have identified a component in the intestine that plays a critical role in repairing damaged tissue.
UC San Diego researchers report using native bacteria in mice as the chassis for delivering transgenes capable of inducing persistent and potentially even curative therapeutic changes in the gut and reversing disease pathologies.
In 1665, the Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens hanged two of his recently invented pendulum clocks on a wooden beam and observed that as time passed, the clocks aligned their beats. Three and a half centuries later, neurons in the brain were found to sync their activities in a similar way.
New research from VCU Massey Cancer Center — published Thursday in Cell Reports — demonstrated that a novel targeted therapy could be an effective treatment option for a deadly pediatric cancer known as neuroblastoma.
Researchers have identified a gene that promotes muscle strength when switched on by physical activity, unlocking the potential for the development of therapeutic treatments to mimic some of the benefits of working out.
Scientists from the RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences in Japan in collaboration with other researchers from around the world have discovered that recombinations of specific genomic sequences that are repeated millions of times in the genome of each of our cells are pervasively found in both normal and in disease states. Identifying the mechanisms that lead to this myriad of recombinations involving DNA sequences that were once considered as “junk”, may be crucial to understanding how our cells develop and what can make them unhealthy.
A while ago, some researchers had suggested that blocking a set of proteins, known as bromodomain and extraterminal (BET) proteins, might be a way to fight COVID-19.
Although COVID-19 booster vaccinations in adults elicit high levels of neutralizing antibodies against the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, antibody levels decrease substantially within 3 months, according to new clinical trial data.
Key takeaways:
• Just like the real thing. The stem cell–derived interneurons, which play a role in sensations like touch and pain, are indistinguishable from their real-life counterparts in the body.
• Tomorrow’s therapies. In addition to potential treatments for injury-related sensation loss, the discovery could lead to new methods for screening drugs for chronic pain.
• Moving forward. While stem cells from mice were used in the research, scientists are now working to replicate the findings with human cells.
Rutgers scientists have found more clear-cut evidence of how the destructive proteins linked to Alzheimer’s disease attack human brain cells and destroy surrounding tissue.
Passive day cooling is a promising technology for the sustainable reduction of energy consumption. It avoids the heating up of buildings by solar radiation and dissipates accumulated heat without external energy consumption.
Here, Seong et al. identify an optimal set of epiblast inducers that captures mouse trophectoderm stem cells (TESCs) as a stable and highly self-renewing state reflecting the blastocyst stage. TESCs have enhanced capacity to form blastoids that indu
Here, Seong et al. identify an optimal set of epiblast inducers that captures mouse trophectoderm stem cells (TESCs) as a stable and highly self-renewing state reflecting the blastocyst stage. TESCs have enhanced capacity to form blastoids that indu
With human iPSC-based brain organoids and mouse chimeras, Jin and colleagues demonstrate that upregulated type-I-interferon (IFN-I) signaling in Down syndrome microglia causes elevated synaptic pruning during development and accelerated senescence, r
In this issue of Cell Stem Cell, Jin et al. report that human Down syndrome microglia exhibit enhanced synaptic engulfment and accelerated tau-induced cellular senescence in human-mouse chimeric brains. They show that inhibiting interferon signaling
Li et al. demonstrate that amino acid catabolism and the GCN2-eIF2α axis control protein synthesis and energy production in hematopoietic stem cells for maintenance and proliferation. They also show that nicotinamide riboside increases amino acid c
Here, Seong et al. identify an optimal set of epiblast inducers that captures mouse trophectoderm stem cells (TESCs) as a stable and highly self-renewing state reflecting the blastocyst stage. TESCs have enhanced capacity to form blastoids that indu
The atypical chemokine receptor 1 (ACKR1) was discovered on erythrocytes as the Duffy blood group antigen (Cutbush et al., 1950), also called Duffy-antigen/receptor for chemokines, or DARC (Novitzky-Basso and Rot, 2012). Erythrocytes are terminally
In this issue of Cell Stem Cell, Tran and colleagues develop a platform for differentiating thousands of miniature kidney organoids consisting of one or two nephron-like structures each. They use this platform to identify a potent new inhibitor of cy
Cell competition is a fitness quality control that eliminates cells that are less fit than their neighbors. Nichols, Lima, and Rodríguez review the importance of cell competition in the early mammalian embryo for the elimination of abnormal cells, f
Duffy antigen receptor for chemokines (DARC)/CD234, also known as atypical chemokine receptor 1 (ACKR1), is a seven-transmembrane domain protein expressed on erythrocytes, vascular endothelium, and a subset of epithelial cells (Peiper et al., 1995).
Niec et al. integrate spatial and single-cell transcriptomics data and develop computational approaches to finely map the cellular and transcriptional landscape of the intestinal crypt-villus axis. Combining these results with functional experiments