Cell Biology News and Research

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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

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

Study helps clarify role of vitamin D in cancer therapy

A colon cancer cell isn't a lost cause. Vitamin D can tame the rogue cell by adjusting everything from its gene expression to its cytoskeleton.

17 Nov 2008

Researchers find deadly protein that acts as a cancer master switch

Two critical properties of cancer cells are their ability to divide without restraint and to spread away from the primary tumor to establish new tumor sites.

17 Nov 2008

New evidence on how proteins help cells fix broken DNA

Aucott et al. report the first in vivo experiments on the heterochromatin protein 1 (HP1) family, which sidles up to silent DNA.

17 Nov 2008

Scientists identify dangerous 'two-faced' protein crucial to breast cancer spread and growth

Two critical properties of cancer cells are their ability to divide without restraint and to spread away from the primary tumor to establish new tumor sites.

17 Nov 2008

Protein enzyme BubR1 provides new understanding of processes behind cancer-cell survival and drug-resistance

A study of how one protein enzyme, BubR1, helps make sure chromosomes are equally distributed during mitosis might explain how the process of cell division goes so awry in cancer, according to researchers from Fox Chase Cancer Center.

17 Nov 2008

Blood exosomes shown to contain tumor-specific genetic information for brain cancer

Tiny vesicles called exosomes released into the bloodstream from aggressive brain tumors contain genetic signatures that may help guide future diagnosis and treatment of this deadly disease.

17 Nov 2008

Microvesicles released from glioblastoma cells carry information that may guide treatment

Microvesicles - tiny membrane-covered sacs - released from glioblastoma cells contain molecules that may provide data that can guide treatment of the deadly brain tumor.

16 Nov 2008

New method of viewing cancer cells shows how breast cancer spreads

In a breakthrough study appearing in advance online publication of Nature Methods, researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University describe for the first time a method of viewing individual breast cancer cells for several days at a time.

12 Nov 2008

Arsenic-free water provides hope to millions of people in South East Asia

A EU-India consortium led by Queen's University Belfast has led to the development of technology which could provide safe drinking water for over 70 million people in South East Asia. The joint collaboration has resulted in the world's first low-cost technology to provide arsenic-free water to people in India and surrounding countries.

12 Nov 2008

Scientists identify compounds for stem-cell production from adult cells

In the study, the scientists screened known drugs and identified small molecules that could replace conventional reprogramming genes, which can have dangerous side effects.

6 Nov 2008

Scientists map molecular regulation of fat-cell genetics

A research team led by Mitchell Lazar, MD, PhD, Director of the Institute for Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, has used state-of-the-art genetic technology to map thousands of positions where a molecular "master regulator" of fat-cell biology is nestled in DNA to control genes in these cells.

5 Nov 2008