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New artificial muscle imitates macroscopic movement of human muscles

The macroscopic movement of our muscles is caused by the collective movement of “biomolecular motors”. Scientists and engineers have long been trying to imitate this process.

10 Dec 2015

Scientists reveal why loss of CD73 enzyme in human cancer promotes tumor progression

Scientists have shown for the first time why loss of the enzyme CD73 in human cancer promotes tumor progression.

8 Dec 2015

EMBL scientists develop new laser technique to prevent cells from contracting

You were once a hollow shell. To sculpt that hollow ball into an organism with layers of internal organs, muscle and skin, portions of that embryonic 'shell' folded inwards. The same happens to fruit fly embryos, and researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany, have now identified a particular group of cells which are crucial for the first such fold.

23 Nov 2015

Research shows how scientists altered stem cells, triggered bone growth

Imagine you have a bone fracture or a hip replacement, and you need bone to form, but you heal slowly - a common fact of life for older people. Instead of forming bone, you could form fat. Researchers at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine may have found a way to tip the scale in favor of bone formation. They used cytochalasin D, a naturally occurring substance found in mold, as a proxy to alter gene expression in the nuclei of mesenchymal stem cells to force them to become osteoblasts (bone cells).

17 Nov 2015

Rice scientists solve long-standing mystery about hemophilia protein

Rice University scientists have solved a long-standing mystery about where the body stores and deploys blood-clotting factor VIII, a protein that about 80 percent of hemophiliacs cannot produce due to genetic defects.

3 Nov 2015

New fluorescent dye could serve as powerful tool to visualize biological events in living cells

A new photostable fluorescent dye for super resolution microscopy could serve as a powerful tool to visualize biological events and structural details in living cells at real-time for prolonged recording periods.

27 Oct 2015

NIBIB-supported bioengineers work to reduce platelet activation and clotting in patients with VADs

A team of NIBIB-supported bioengineers, aerospace scientists, and cardiovascular clinicians are improving the function of the thousands of life-saving ventricular assist devices (VADs) implanted in advanced heart failure patients each year.

8 Oct 2015

Researchers unlock structural details of key protein to treat neuromuscular disease

Researchers at Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine have unlocked the structural details of a protein seen as key to treating a neuromuscular disease.

30 Sep 2015

Key sequence in killer cells captured by Andor revolution microscope

Although much is known of the immune response to antigen-presenting cells, until now the way the body's own killer cells establish an immunological synapse to destroy those target cells has remained unclear. Now, an international research team led by Professor Gillian Griffiths of Cambridge University has resolved the key sequence of events using high-resolution 4D imaging.

15 Sep 2015

Scientists identify new pathway that may protect brain from Alzheimer's disease

It is a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease: Toxic protein fragments known as amyloid-β clumped together between neurons in a person's brain.

19 Aug 2015

Researchers reveal how toxins turn healthy proteins into poison to disrupt immune response

Researchers who have revealed a highly efficient way that bacteria use toxins to interrupt the immune response say that until now, the trickery of these toxins has been underappreciated in science.

11 Aug 2015

TSRI study shows single injection of blebbistatin drug prevents methamphetamine relapse in animal models

Recovering addicts often grapple with the ghosts of their addiction—memories that tempt them to relapse even after rehabilitation and months, or even years, of drug-free living.

5 Aug 2015

Researchers decode molecular mechanism of fish toxin that has potential to treat cancer

Pathogenic bacteria develop killer machines that work very specifically and highly efficiently. Scientists from the University of Freiburg have solved the molecular mechanism of a fish toxin that could be used in the future as a medication to treat cancer. The scientists have now published their research in the journal Nature Communications.

25 Jul 2015

Findings shed light on how symmetrical, round cells become polarized and directional

When Greek mythology and cell biology meet, you get the protein Callipygian, recently discovered and named by researchers at The Johns Hopkins University for its role in determining which area of a cell becomes the back as it begins to move.

8 Jul 2015

Research shows how prion-like proteins critical for maintaining long-term memories

Research from Eric Kandel's lab at Columbia University Medical Center has uncovered further evidence of a system in the brain that persistently maintains memories for long periods of time. And paradoxically, it works in the same way as mechanisms that cause mad cow disease, kuru, and other degenerative brain diseases.

3 Jul 2015

Researchers map physical properties of live breast cancer cells using advanced AFM technology

Researchers who developed a high-speed form of atomic force microscopy have shown how to image the physical properties of live breast cancer cells, for the first time revealing details about how deactivation of a key protein may lead to metastasis.

30 Jun 2015

Researchers discover initiation process of dendritic spines

Researchers from the University of Helsinki, ETH Zürich, Aix-Marseille and the German Mouse Clinic teamed up to investigate the initiation process of dendritic spines. They discovered that protein called MIM bends the plasma membrane to aid the formation of dendritic spines from the surface of the neuronal dendrite.

5 Jun 2015

UB researchers identify mechanisms behind some autistic behaviors, suggest potential targets

Scientists at the University at Buffalo have identified the mechanisms behind a genetic mutation that produces certain autistic behaviors in mice, as well as therapeutic strategies to restore normal behaviors.

28 May 2015

Vanderbilt biologists explore how electrochemical connections form at molecular and cellular level

Every time you make a memory, somewhere in your brain a tiny filament reaches out from one neuron and forms an electrochemical connection to a neighboring neuron.

27 Apr 2015

Mexican researcher close to finding a cure for Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease, which took world fame after being diagnosed in various personalities such as actor Michael J. Fox, the heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali and the painter Salvador Dalí, could be very close to a cure, thanks to a Mexican researcher which managed to eliminate its neurological effects with an immunosuppressant.

25 Mar 2015