HELMHOLTZ ZENTRUM MÜNCHEN – GERMAN RESEARCH CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH IMAGE: ACTIVATION OF THE WNT/PCP SIGNALING PATHWAY (SHOWN IN GREEN) IN INTESTINAL STEM CELLS PRIMES THEIR FATE TOWARDS THE PANETH AND ENTEROENDOCRINE LINEAGE. CREDIT: HELMHOLTZ ZENTRUM MÜNCHEN The gut plays a central role in the regulation of the body’s metabolism and its dysfunction is associated with a...
For almost any conceivable protein, corresponding antibodies can be developed to block it from binding or changing shape, which ultimately prevents it from carrying out its normal function. As such, scientists have looked to antibodies as a way of shutting down proteins inside cells for decades, but there is still no consistent way to get...
UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN THE FACULTY OF HEALTH AND MEDICAL SCIENCES Stem cells all share the potential of developing into any specific cell in the body. Many researchers are therefore trying to answer the fundamental questions of what determines the cells’ developmental fate as well as when and why the cells lose the potential of developing into any cell. Now, researchers from the Novo Nordisk...
Clearer understanding of lower cell replication rates in old age may have implications for preventing cancer and slowing aging JOHNS HOPKINS MEDICINE In a novel study comparing healthy cells from people in their 20s with cells from people in their 80s, researchers at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center say they have documented that cell...
by Mary L. Martialay, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute A new imaging technique that makes it possible to match motor proteins with the cargo they carry within a cell is upending a standard view of how cellular traffic reaches the correct destination. The research, which focuses on neurons and sheds light on some neurodegenerative diseases, was published...
Posted Today This news or article is intended for readers with certain scientific or professional knowledge in the field. Pluripotency is a feature of stem cell populations in which individual cells must know a great deal about their surroundings. If you’re a human embryonic stem cell — and who among us hasn’t been — the G1 (“Gap 1”) phase of development is...
HOKKAIDO UNIVERSITY A compound effective in killing chemotherapy-resistant glioblastoma-initiating cells (GICs) has been identified, raising hopes of producing drugs capable of eradicating refractory tumors with low toxicity. Despite longstanding and earnest endeavors to develop new remedies, the prognosis of most glioblastoma patients undergoing chemotherapies and radiotherapies remains poor. Glioblastoma, a malignant glioma, has a median...
To fight cancer and ageing, biologists are looking at how cells evict, kill or cannibalize less-fit rivals. Kendall Powell Yasuyaki Fujita has seen first-hand what happens when cells stop being polite and start getting real. He caught a glimpse of this harsh microscopic world when he switched on a cancer-causing gene called Ras in a few kidney cells in a dish....
by University of Oxford When immune cells detect harmful pathogens or cancer, they mobilise and coordinate a competent defence response. To do this effectively immune cells must communicate in a way that is tailored to the pathogenic insult. Consequently, the body’s response to various health challenges depends on successful coordination among the cells of the immune...
by Steinar Brandslet, Norwegian University of Science and Technology A solid tumor can cause muscle cells in the body to self-destruct. Many cancer patients die from the consequences. Now researchers are discovering more about how cancer cells in a tumor can take control of muscle cell wasting and trigger a chronic, serious condition. This type of cancer-related muscle wasting is due to...
