Cellular Biology News and Research

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Light cigarettes may be more toxic than traditional cigarettes

Typically, tobacco companies market harm-reduction cigarettes as being safer than traditional "full-flavored" brands, leading many smokers to conclude that the use of harm-reduction brands lowers their exposure to toxicants.

8 Dec 2008

Trial shows safety of pre-transplant expansion of umbilical cord blood stem cells

Taking blood stem cells collected from an umbilical cord into the lab and expanding their number before transplanting them to replace a patient's blood supply is as safe as a standard cord blood transplant, researchers reported at the 50th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology.

8 Dec 2008

Alternative splicing proteins prompt heart development

Just as the emotions it represents are dynamic, the heart's development requires dynamic shifts in proteins that prompt alternative spicing, a mechanism that allows a given gene to program the cell to make several proteins, said a group of researchers at Baylor College of Medicine in a report that appears online in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

8 Dec 2008

Hemichannels - new target to treat epileptic seizures following brain trauma or stroke

New therapies for some forms of epilepsy may soon be possible, thanks to a discovery made by a team of University of British Columbia and Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute neuroscience researchers.

8 Dec 2008

Dormant stem cells for emergencies

Many specialized cells, such as in the skin, intestinal mucosa or blood, have a lifespan of only a few days.

5 Dec 2008

Cancer stem-cell model tested by University of Michigan researchers

One of the most promising new ideas about the causes of cancer, known as the cancer stem-cell model, must be reassessed because it is based largely on evidence from a laboratory test that is surprisingly flawed when applied to some cancers, University of Michigan researchers have concluded.

3 Dec 2008

Scientists show that endothelial cells give rise to blood stem cells

Stem cell researchers at UCLA have proven definitively that blood stem cells are made during mid-gestational embryonic development by endothelial cells, the cells that line the inside of blood vessels.

3 Dec 2008

New set of controls for stem cells discovered

Natural changes in voltage that occur across the membrane of adult human stem cells are a powerful controlling factor in the process by which these stem cells differentiate, according to research published by Tufts University scientists.

3 Dec 2008

Broccoli compound, indole-3-carbinol targets key enzyme in late-stage cancer

An anti-cancer compound found in broccoli and cabbage works by lowering the activity of an enzyme associated with rapidly advancing breast cancer, according to a University of California, Berkeley, study appearing this week in the online early edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

3 Dec 2008

Alpha-catenin protein provokes healthy cell bonding

In human relationships, a certain "spark" often governs whether we prefer one person more than another, and critical first impressions can occur within seconds. A team lead by Johns Hopkins researchers has found that cell-to-cell "friendships" operate in much the same way and that dysfunctional bonding is linked to the spread of cancer.

3 Dec 2008

MG53 protein found to be a key initiator of membrane repair in damaged tissue

The study, released in Nature Cell Biology, is the first to specifically pinpoint a protein responsible for promoting cell repair.

3 Dec 2008

Yeast provides new insight into cholesterol-lowering drugs

Having discovered how a lowly, single-celled fungus regulates its version of cholesterol, Johns Hopkins researchers are gaining new insight about the target and action of cholesterol-lowering drugs taken daily by millions of people to stave off heart attacks and strokes.

3 Dec 2008

Reprogrammable cell type depends on a single gene to keep its identity

Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have discovered that a certain differentiated cell type is so ready to change its identity that it requires the constant expression of a gene called Prox1 to dissuade it.

1 Dec 2008

Multitasking proteins driving cell behavior

A study describing how cells within blood vessel walls move en masse overturns an assumption common in the age of genomics - that the proteins driving cell behavior are doing so much multitasking that it would be near impossible to group them according to a few discrete functions.

30 Nov 2008

Condensin II proteins found to keep chromosomes apart when necessary

If chromosomes snuggle up too closely at the wrong times, the results can be genetic disaster.

28 Nov 2008

How microscopy can unlock the key to disease

A leading international scientist will reveal how the latest techniques in microscopy - including time-lapse imaging of living cells - are leading to breakthroughs in understanding genetic and acquired diseases.

26 Nov 2008

Scientists shed light on how DNA is unwound so that its code can be read

Researchers at The Scripps Research Institute have figured out how a macromolecular machine is able to unwind the long and twisted tangles of DNA within a cell's nucleus so that genetic information can be "read" and used to direct the synthesis of proteins, which have many specific functions in the body.

24 Nov 2008

Pancreatic duct cells identified as new source of insulin-producing cells

Researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center have shown that insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells can form after birth or after injury from progenitor cells within the pancreas that were not beta cells, a finding that contradicts a widely-cited earlier study that had concluded this is not possible.

24 Nov 2008

Researchers shed new light on genetics of Parkinson's

A new study by Narendra et al. suggests that Parkin, the product of the Parkinson's disease-related gene Park2, prompts neuronal survival by clearing the cell of its damaged mitochondria.

24 Nov 2008