Developmental Biology News and Research

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Common sparrow and Tyrannosaurus Rex are more closely related than believed

At first glance, it's hard to see how a common house sparrow and a Tyrannosaurus Rex might have anything in common. After all, one is a bird that weighs less than an ounce, and the other is a dinosaur that was the size of a school bus and tipped the scales at more than eight tons.

28 May 2012

Researchers to initiate Crenezumab clinical trial to treat Alzheimer's

After an announcement by federal officials approving clinical trials for the drug Crenezumab, researchers searching for a way to treat Alzheimer's Disease are gearing up for a rare study that will allow them to test a therapy for a genetically predestined disease -- before its onset.

23 May 2012

EMBO Journal highlights three decades of Wnt research

The impact and influence of thirty years of research into the Wnt/beta-catenin signaling pathway are highlighted in a special issue of The EMBO Journal.

23 May 2012

Scientists identify first gene associated with congenital asplenia

Researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College and Rockefeller University have identified the first gene to be linked to a rare condition in which babies are born without a spleen, putting those children at risk of dying from infections they cannot defend themselves against. The gene, Nkx2.5, was shown to regulate genesis of the spleen during early development in mice.

4 May 2012

Researchers identify new components of genetic pathway that controls neural stem cells

Can one feel too attached? Does one need to let go to mature? Neural stem cells have this problem, too. As immature cells, neural stem cells must stick together in a protected environment called a niche in order to divide so they can make all of the cells that populate the nervous system. But when it's time to mature, or differentiate, the neural stem cells must stop dividing, detach from their neighbors and migrate to where they are needed to form the circuits necessary for humans to think, feel and interact with the world.

26 Apr 2012

U-M’s second human embryonic stem cell line now available for federally-funded research

The University of Michigan's second human embryonic stem cell line has just been placed on the U.S. National Institutes of Health's registry, making the cells available for federally-funded research. It is the second of the stem cell lines derived at U-M to be placed on the registry.

26 Apr 2012

Developing organisms can identify and repair head and facial abnormalities

Developmental biologists at Tufts University have identified a "self-correcting" mechanism by which developing organisms recognize and repair head and facial abnormalities. This is the first time that such a mechanism has been reported for the face and the first time that this kind of flexible, corrective process has been rigorously analyzed through mathematical modeling.

26 Apr 2012

Strong light can treat myocardial infarction

There are lots of ways to treat a heart attack - CPR, aspirin, clot-busters and more. Now CU medical school researchers have found a new candidate: Intense light.

26 Apr 2012

Chinese scientists make significant breakthrough in animal cloning

Chinese scientists from BGI, the world's largest genomics organization, together with the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and Shihezi University, Xinjiang province, made a significant breakthrough in animal cloning.

20 Apr 2012

Towards a drug to control cystic fibrosis

Harvard stem cell researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have taken a critical step in making possible the discovery in the relatively near future of a drug to control cystic fibrosis (CF), a fatal lung disease that claims about 500 lives each year, with 1,000 new cases diagnosed annually.

6 Apr 2012

UT Southwestern molecular biologist to receive Steven C. Beering Award

Dr. Eric N. Olson, chairman of molecular biology at UT Southwestern Medical Center, is the winner of the 2012 Steven C. Beering Award for outstanding advancements in biomedical or clinical science.

3 Apr 2012

New technique could restore fertility of boys undergoing cancer treatment

Treatments for childhood cancers are increasingly successful with cure rates approaching 80%, but success often comes with a downside for the surviving men: the cancer treatments they received as boys can leave them sterile as adults. Now, a research team led by Ralph Brinster of the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine has completed a 14-year experiment that gives hope for a technique that could restore their fertility.

29 Mar 2012

PCP signaling restricts neural growth during regeneration, homeostasis and development

The genetic pathway that regulates the way cells align themselves relative to each other has been found to act as a "stop sign" that signals organisms when to halt cell growth, according to new research published by biologists at the Center for Regenerative and Developmental Biology in Tufts University's School of Arts and Sciences.

16 Mar 2012

Researchers identify epigenetic signatures within reprogrammed skin cells

A research team has identified epigenetic signatures, markers on DNA that control transient changes in gene expression, within reprogrammed skin cells.

15 Mar 2012

Potential new way to treat rare inherited metabolic disorders

A University of Michigan cell biologist and his colleagues have identified a potential drug that speeds up trash removal from the cell's recycling center, the lysosome.

14 Mar 2012

Insulin and nutrition keep blood stem cells from differentiating into mature blood cells

UCLA stem cell researchers have shown that insulin and nutrition keep blood stem cells from differentiating into mature blood cells in Drosophila, the common fruit fly, a finding that has implications for studying inflammatory response and blood development in response to dietary changes in humans.

12 Mar 2012

Bacteria may be talking to each other with a contact-dependent language

What if bacteria could talk to each other? What if they had a sense of touch? A new study by researchers at UC Santa Barbara suggests both, and theorizes that such cells may, in fact, need to communicate in order to perform certain functions. The findings appear today in the journal Genes & Development.

2 Mar 2012

External cues affect cell's ability to migrate

In a paper published today in the journal, Cell, a team from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has explained for the first time how a long-studied protein complex affects cell migration and how external cues affect cell's ability to migrate.

2 Mar 2012

Researchers discover critical placental niche cell and signaling pathway

UCLA stem cell researchers have discovered a critical placental niche cell and signaling pathway that prevent blood precursors from premature differentiation in the placenta, a process necessary for ensuring proper blood supply for an individual's lifetime.

2 Mar 2012

Wiley-Blackwell introduces new WIREs in membrane and developmental biology

Wiley-Blackwell, the scientific, technical, medical and scholarly publishing business of John Wiley & Sons, Inc., has launched two new interdisciplinary review publications: WIREs Developmental Biology and WIREs Membrane Transport and Signaling.

27 Feb 2012