Actin News and Research

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Salk scientists uncover surprising role of tuft cells in pancreatitis

Persistent inflammation of the pancreas (chronic pancreatitis) is a known risk factor for developing pancreatic cancer, the third-deadliest cancer in the United States.

18 Apr 2020

Advance in understanding actin sheds light on cell function

Scientists have discovered more about actin, a chemical modification on one of the most abundant and important proteins.

8 Apr 2020

Extracellular forces regulate the formation of epithelia-integrating actomyosin bundles

Different surfaces and organs of the body are covered by epithelial tissue, which is composed of cells tightly connected to each other.

2 Apr 2020

Researchers uncover creeping, crawling origin of MYH9-related blood disorders

Ouch, you've cut your finger! As you fumble to grab a tissue, the paramedics in your blood are already rushing to the scene.

9 Mar 2020

Research shows how Chlamydia pathogen invades human cells

Together with scientists from Paris and Munich, a team of researchers working under Prof. Dr. Johannes Hegemann and Dr. Katja Moelleken has published these findings in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

5 Mar 2020

Researchers identify protein that maintains balance between protrusive and contractile machineries

Tropomodulin maintains the fine balance between the protein machineries responsible for cell movement and morphogenesis.

18 Feb 2020

Developing new approaches to fight against multi-resistant pathogens

Developing fundamentally new approaches against multi-resistant germs: This is the goal of the new Bavarian research network bayresq.net which started in January 2020.

9 Feb 2020

Fly model could help lay the foundation for new therapies to fight 'difficult' pathogen

The Clostridium difficile pathogen takes its name from the French word for "difficult." A bacterium that is known to cause symptoms ranging from diarrhea to life-threatening colon damage, C. difficile is part of a growing epidemic of concern for the elderly and patients on antibiotics.

8 Feb 2020

Book review: Nano comes to life by Sonia Contera

NuNano’s marketing lead, Rebecca Megson-Smith, is our resident bookworm.

From Nu Nano Ltd 28 Jan 2020

Research reveals cardiac thin filament structure and function

Researchers at Osaka University used electron cryomicroscopy to image essential cardiac muscle components, known as thin filaments, with unprecedented resolution.

9 Jan 2020

Body clock gene impairs defense against pneumonia

Most living things have an internal body clock which regulates when they sleep and when they wake up. A complex set of genes turning on and off, make this body clock run over roughly 24 hours, and a gene known by the acronym BMAL1 is one of the master regulators of this clock, controlling many other body clock genes and pathways.

6 Jan 2020

New 'fishing' technique to detect thousands of proteins

A new study published today in the journal Nature Cell Biology reports the use of a novel fishing method, under microscopy, to pick up thousands of proteins that are involved in supervising how the cell skeleton is assembled.

23 Dec 2019

Researchers identify molecular machinery that drives rapid polymerization of actin filaments

Many cells in our body constantly change their shape and move within our tissues. For example, wound healing and the immune system depend on migrating cells.

17 Dec 2019

Leaky gut and space flight – the mechanism revealed

A new study on the effects of simulated microgravity, the condition that astronauts face in space, interferes with the epithelial barrier of the intestine, and the effect persists even after the astronaut returns to a normal environment. The research is published in the journal Scientific Reports.

28 Nov 2019

Vaping wrecks immune cell function, increases infection risk

A new study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology shows that e-cigarettes have toxic effects on neutrophils function, making them a threat to human health by increasing the likelihood of infection with Gram-negative bacteria.

17 Nov 2019

Myocardial infarction model developed using cardiomyocytes

Researchers at Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences developed a model of myocardial infarction using cardiomyocytes differentiated from human induced pluripotent stem cells.

7 Nov 2019

Newly discovered molecular process could speed up recovery from nerve injuries

Twenty million Americans suffer from peripheral nerve injuries, which can be caused by traumas such as combat wounds and motorcycle crashes as well as medical disorders including diabetes.

3 Oct 2019

DNA origami: creating DNA-based nanomachines

DNA-based nanomachines are being created by DNA origami in several ways to create mechanical force at the scale of picoNewtons.

19 Sep 2019

Stopping cold viruses dead by blocking replication

The common cold virus (and its more deadly cousins, the viruses that cause polio and acute flaccid myelitis) may just have met its nemesis. In a recent study published in the journal Nature Microbiology on September 16, 2019, scientists reported a potentially successful new approach to stop cold viruses from replicating inside human cells – by blocking the formation of a protein that is vital to this process.

17 Sep 2019

Melatonin promises to help reduce bone loss in space flight

New research suggests that the problem of bone loss caused by microgravity conditions in space flight may be successfully treated using the time-tested drug melatonin. Melatonin increases the level of calcitonin in bone, which suppresses the bone-destroying activity of osteoclastic cells and helps maintain bone density.

4 Sep 2019