Cell Cycle News and Research

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Evidence of RNA in structures essential to cell division

Evidence for the first time that centrosomes, which play a key role in cell division, may carry their own genetic machinery, answering a controversial question of long standing.

14 Jun 2006

Centrosomes may contain ribonucleic acid

Despite more than a century of study, scientists know relatively little about the inner workings of centrosomes - organelles essential to cell division in humans and animals.

7 Jun 2006

Researchers have made important progress in regenerating hearing cells

Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers have made important progress in their ongoing effort to regenerate the inner ear's hair cells, which convert sound vibrations to nerve impulses.

3 May 2006

Researchers figure out how nuclear pores duplicate before cells divide

Researchers have long wondered how nuclear pores - the all-important channels that control the flow of information in and out of a cell's nucleus - double in number to prepare for the split to come when a cell divides. Now, for the first time, scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies watched as new funnel-like pore structures formed from scratch, and inserted themselves into the nuclear membrane.

28 Apr 2006

Scientists clarify role of phosphatase and tensin homolog tumor suppressor gene

Jiwang Zhang, Ph.D., formerly a Senior Research Associate at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, and Linheng Li, Ph.D., Associate Investigator, are credited as the first and last authors, respectively, on a paper highlighting several previously unknown functions of phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN), an important tumor suppressor gene.

23 Apr 2006

Reversing cell division has implications for the treatment of cancer

A scientist in the United States has apparently found a way to reverse the process of cell division.

13 Apr 2006

New model of p53 regulation has important implications for the development of anticancer drugs

Genetically engineered mice convinced scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies that it was time to overhaul widely held beliefs about how a powerful tumor suppressor called p53 is controlled in cells. Their new model of p53 regulation has important implications for the development of anticancer drugs.

11 Apr 2006

MIT look at how cells make life-or-death decisions

The biological processes underlying diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and cancer are fundamentally linked, and should be linked in how they are treated with drugs, a series of MIT studies indicates.

6 Apr 2006

Discovery in yeast opens door to new source of information on DNA damage, repair, and cancer

The discovery in yeast cells of a genetic network that guards against lethal DNA damage is a first step in the creation of a database of disease-causing combinations of mutated human genes, according to researchers at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine led by Jef. D. Boeke, Ph.D.

15 Mar 2006

Man-made chemical compound targets and kills tumor cells

A man-made chemical compound called ARC causes tumor cells to die but leaves normal cells unharmed, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago report in a study highlighted in the March 15 issue of Cancer Research.

15 Mar 2006

Study reveals mechanisms behind Thiazolidinediones used to treat type 2 diabetes

Thiazolidinediones (TZD's) are drugs commonly prescribed to patients with type 2 diabetes, the most common form of diabetes. Current U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved agents are known as Actos (pioglitazone) and Avandia (rosiglitazone).

13 Mar 2006

Inactivating Rad9 protien could make cancer cells easier to kill with ionizing radiation

The researchers found that Rad9, previously considered a "watchman" that checks for DNA damage, is actually a "repairman" that fixes dangerous breaks in the DNA double helix. They found Rad9 is especially active in telomeres, the protective ends of chromosomes.

17 Feb 2006

Study identifies compounds that overcome a specific type of resistance to chemotherapeutic-induced apoptosis

Treatment of human cancer is often impeded when cancer cells develop resistance to drugs that are designed to induce a type of programmed cell death called apoptosis.

16 Feb 2006

Link between dementia and cancer

By expressing a protein associated with Alzheimer's disease in the brain of the fruit fly, researchers have demonstrated an intriguing link between neuronal death and proteins previously associated with cancer.

7 Feb 2006

First genome-wide screen for protein complexes is completed

Researchers in Germany have finished the first complete analysis of the "molecular machines" in one of biology's most important model organisms: S. cerevisiae (baker's yeast). The study from the biotechnology company Cellzome, in collaboration with the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), appears in this week's online edition of Nature.

23 Jan 2006

Alzheimer's may be triggered by neuron division

A new study in mice suggests that Alzheimer's disease (AD) may be triggered when adult neurons try to divide. The finding helps researchers understand what goes wrong in the disease and may lead to new ways of treating it.

18 Jan 2006

Targeted cancer therapies: Another step forward

While it is clear that the treatment of cancer has already begun to undergo a paradigm shift with the inclusion of innovative targeted therapies into current regimens, it would be wrong to assume these products will entirely replace traditional chemotherapy as the standard treatment for cancer sufferers.

22 Dec 2005