Living Cells News and Research

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Measuring the footprint of cells

Even the slightest differences are important in competitive sport: To improve a ski jumper's performance, the trainer can analyze the jump very accurately using force sensors.

8 Jun 2008

Talking to cells

For an organism to develop and function, the individual cells must exchange information, or communicate, with each other. Is it possible to learn their language and "talk to" the cells? Yes it is: Cameron Alexander and George Pasparakis at the University of Nottingham (UK) have been able to facilitate a conversation between bacterial cells and artificial polymer vesicles.

5 Jun 2008

NCI scientists visualize gene regulation in living cells

A research team led by scientists at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has applied advanced imaging methods and computer simulations to be able to glance at the regulation of a cancer-related gene in a living cell. They found that the efficiency with which the components of the cell's gene reading machinery come together has an impact on gene expression, the process by which a gene translates its information into a new protein. The findings, published in the May 23, 2008 issue of Molecular Cell, shed new light on the means by which living cells regulate gene activity.

22 May 2008

Model shows how mutation tips biochemistry to cause Alzheimer's

Your fate can be determined by tiny events. Imagine you live in the city and you walk everywhere to get exercise - you are healthy and not afraid of getting mugged. You almost never eat breakfast so you don't stop at the donut shop on the way to work, until one day the manager replaces the girl at the counter with her pretty red-haired younger sister. This seemingly unimportant change in your world is just enough to overcome your ability to resist high-fat temptation. A million donuts later, your cholesterol level surges and then your heart gives out. Curse you, little red-haired girl!

12 May 2008

Bioartificial kidney speeds recovery, reduces mortality

Another promising clinical trial for the bioartificial kidney is offering researchers even more hope that within the next few years the device will be available to save lives of patients with acute renal failure.

24 Apr 2008

Discovery of method for clamping down on a cancer-promoting enzyme

There are many pathways that allow an errant gene to turn a cell cancerous, and a number of these pathways go through a single enzyme called the p21-activated kinase 1, or PAK1.

18 Apr 2008

TOR signaling and dietary restriction

University of Washington scientists have uncovered details about the mechanisms through which dietary restriction slows the aging process.

17 Apr 2008

Researchers discover protein leiomodin promotes the assembly of an important heart muscle protein actin

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have discovered that a protein called leiomodin (Lmod) promotes the assembly of an important heart muscle protein called actin.

11 Apr 2008

Enzyme complex could be key to new cancer treatments

Penn State scientists are the first to observe in living cells a key step in the creation of adenine and guanine, two of the four building blocks that comprise DNA.

4 Apr 2008

Powerful new cell research tool

The view into the inner world of living cells just got a little brighter and more colorful.

26 Feb 2008

Disrupted genetic regulation causes common disturbance in metabolism of fat

The disease familial combined hyperlipidemia (FCH) is a common cause of disturbed metabolism of fat and early heart attacks.

7 Feb 2008

Chemical chaperone could open door to treatment of neurological disorder

An unexpected finding turned out to be a clue leading researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis to propose a new treatment approach for Niemann-Pick disease, a rare, deadly neurodegenerative disorder.

7 Feb 2008

Scientists create fluorescent proteins for live cell imaging, biosensor design

Scientists at Carnegie Mellon University's Molecular Biosensor and Imaging Center have developed new "fluorogen activating proteins" (FAPs) that will become a key component of novel molecular biosensor technology being created at Carnegie Mellon.

7 Feb 2008

Disrupted genetic regulation causes common disturbance in metabolism of fat

The disease familial combined hyperlipidemia (FCH) is a common cause of disturbed metabolism of fat and early heart attacks.

5 Feb 2008

New understanding on the mechanics of gene transcription

The molecular machinery behind gene transcription -- the intricate transfer of information from a segment of DNA to a corresponding strand of messenger RNA -- isn't stationed in special "transcription factories" within a cell nucleus, according to Cornell researchers.

9 Jan 2008

Model developed that predicts molecular response of living cells to genetic or environmental change

Scientists at the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB), in collaboration with researchers from New York University (NYU), have developed a model which rapidly characterizes and accurately predicts the molecular-level, mechanistic response of a free-living cell to genetic and environmental changes.

28 Dec 2007

How molecular muscles help cells divide

Time-lapse videos and computer simulations provide the first concrete molecular explanation of how a cell flexes tiny muscle-like structures to pinch itself into two daughter cells at the end of each cell division, according to a report in Science Express.

17 Dec 2007

Protein fingerprinting made easy

Combining some traditional experimental methods of molecular biology with computational methods of artificial intelligence, a group of researchers from Ruder Boskovic Instititute and Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics from Zagreb, Croatia, demonstrated a novel approach for producing 'protein fingerprints' of diverse tissues.

13 Dec 2007

Odyssey Thera granted U.S. patent for animal imaging

Odyssey Thera, Inc. has announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office granted U.S. Patent No. 7,306,914, entitled "Protein-fragment Complementation Assays (PCA) in whole animals: applications to drug efficacy, ADME, cancer biology, immunology, infectious disease and gene therapy.

13 Dec 2007

Scientists levitate cells with light to sort

Separating out particular kinds of cells from a sample could become faster, cheaper and easier thanks to a new system developed by MIT researchers that involves levitating the cells with light.

10 Dec 2007