Cellular Biology News and Research

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Could a hereditary illness ever spread by contamination?

Researchers at the CNRS Laboratoire d'enzymologie et biochimie structurales, studying Huntington's disease in collaboration with Professor Ron Kopito's team at Stanford University, have shown that the normal form of huntingtin protein can acquire an abnormal form without any modification of its genetic code.

10 Feb 2009

Hair follicle stem cells may be key to organ regeneration

Most people consider hair as a purely cosmetic part of their lives. To others, it may help uncover one of nature's best-kept secrets: the body's ability to regenerate organs.

8 Feb 2009

Neural mapping paints a haphazard picture of odor receptors

Despite the striking aromatic differences between coffee, peppermint, and pine, a new mapping of the nose's neural circuitry suggests a haphazard patchwork where the receptors for such disparate scents are as likely as not to be neighbors.

3 Feb 2009

Scientists unlock secrets of gene regulatory networks

A quartet of studies by researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) highlight a special feature on gene regulatory networks recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ( PNAS ).

3 Feb 2009

Fibroblasts invade at a snail's pace

A transcription factor known to drive the formation of fibroblasts during development also promotes their ability to invade and remodel surrounding tissues, report Rowe et al. in the February 9, 2009 issue of the Journal of Cell Biology.

2 Feb 2009

Cell-building discovery offers great potential for basic cell biology, drug and tissue research

Brown University biomedical engineers can now grow and assemble living microtissues into complex three-dimensional structures in a way that will advance the field of tissue engineering and may eventually reduce the need for certain kinds of animal research.

2 Feb 2009

Discovery of new class of non-protein coding genes in mammals with key functions

A research team at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center has uncovered a vast new class of previously unrecognized mammalian genes that do not encode proteins, but instead function as long RNA molecules.

2 Feb 2009

Researchers identify protein that may explain 'healthy' obesity

Mice whose fat cells were allowed to grow larger than fat cells in normal mice developed "healthy" obesity when fed a high-fat diet, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center found in a new study.

2 Feb 2009

Researchers disrupt biochemical system involved in cancer, degenerative disease

Screening a chemical library of 200,000 compounds, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have identified two new classes that can be used to study and possibly manipulate a cellular pathway involved in many types of cancer and degenerative diseases.

2 Feb 2009

Protease inhibitor found to aid diabetic retinopathy treatment

Researchers from Joslin Diabetes Center, Boston, and ActiveSite Pharmaceuticals, Inc., San Francisco, announced today that they have demonstrated that a specific inhibitor of the protease plasma kallikrein, ASP-440, developed by ActiveSite Pharmaceuticals, may provide a new therapeutic approach for treatment of diabetic retinopathy, the most common eye-related complication of diabetes.

21 Jan 2009

Researchers identify biochemical switch required for nerve cells to respond to DNA damage

The finding, scheduled for advance online publication in Nature Cell Biology, illuminates a connection between proteins involved in neurodegenerative disease and in cells' response to DNA damage.

19 Jan 2009

Obesity centre behind major staff expansion

The University of Sydney is embarking on one of its largest ever recruitment drives in the wake of recent federal funding for an international centre of expertise in obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

19 Jan 2009

Study shows how defective DNA repair triggers 2 neurological diseases

Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have teased apart the biological details distinguishing two related neurological diseases-ataxia telangiectasia-like disease (ATLD) and Nijmegen breakage syndrome (NBS).

15 Jan 2009

Proteins called ankyrins required to prevent muscular dystrophy

A protein that was first identified for playing a key role in regulating normal heart rhythms also appears to be significant in helping muscle cells survive the forces of muscle contraction.

13 Jan 2009

New cellular clues to understanding cancer

In the 13th January print edition of the journal Current Biology, Instituto Gubenkian de Ciencia researchers provide insight into an old mystery in cell biology, and offer up new clues to understanding cancer.

12 Jan 2009

Study looks at Fatal Familiar Insomnia

Fatal Familiar Insomnia (FFI) is one of the diseases considered as rare - there are less than 100 cases described throughout the world.

7 Jan 2009

Genomics in China

Ten years ago, the Chinese National Human Genome Center at Shanghai (South Center, hereafter) was established in the Zhangjiang HiTech Park of Pudong District in Shanghai.

7 Jan 2009

COUP-TFII plays pivotal role in obesity, metabolic syndrome

A protein known to play a role in development and the formation of organs is also an important factor in the control of obesity and diabetes, said researchers from Baylor College of Medicine in a report that appears in the current issue of the journal Cell Metabolism.

6 Jan 2009

How loss or mutation of LMNA gene causes Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy

Mutations in the nuclear intermediate filament lamin A/C (LMNA) gene are associated with Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy, but cause the disease by unknown mechanisms.

5 Jan 2009

Discovery of new tumor suppressor for lung cancer

Cancer and cell biology experts at the University of Cincinnati (UC) have identified a new tumor suppressor that may help scientists develop more targeted drug therapies to combat lung cancer.

5 Jan 2009