Cell Biology

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Research makes a leap forward in understanding how the skin heals

People who suffer severe burns or extensive skin injuries are often left to live with extreme scarring, disfigurement, and skin that feels chronically tight and itchy.

19 Aug 2020

Study shows how PIM kinases enhance cancer cell motility

PIM kinases are enzymes that promote metastatic growth and spread of cancer cells. Researchers from the University of Turku, Finland, have obtained new information on how the PIM kinases enhance cancer cell motility by regulating the formation of actin fibers in the cytoskeleton.

19 Aug 2020

Regeneration of vascular cells is regulated by RNA-binding protein

Through their basic research, physicians at the Heart Center of the University Hospital Bonn have discovered how the communication between individual cells can be influenced with the help of a specific protein.

19 Aug 2020

Researchers solve a long-held mystery of X chromosome inactivation

Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have solved a mystery that has long puzzled scientists: How do the bodies of female humans and all other mammals decide which of the two X chromosomes it carries in each cell should be active and which one should be silent?

18 Aug 2020

Mild COVID-19 cases can trigger robust memory T cell responses

Mild cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) can trigger robust memory T cell responses, even in the absence of detectable virus-specific antibody responses, researchers report August 14 in the journal Cell.

17 Aug 2020

Switching off 'master regulator' may protect critical brain cells from Parkinson's-related damage

Switching off a molecular "master regulator" may protect the brain from inflammatory damage and neurodegeneration in Parkinson's disease, reports a study published today in Nature Neuroscience.

17 Aug 2020

New technique enables real-time observation of influenza A hemagglutinin during viral entry

Unlike living organisms, to avoid extinction, viruses need to hijack living host machineries to generate new viruses.

17 Aug 2020

Deciphering the largest CRISPR system

Professor Guillermo Montoya spoke to News-Medical on his research that involved visualizing the largest and most complex CRISPR system.

17 Aug 2020

Combination of nanotechnology and genetic engineering for regulating fatal cancer stemness

The development of chemotherapeutic agents with selective anti-cancer activities is increasingly unattractive due to the emergence of resistance, poor targeting of cancer tissues, and subsequent metastasis.

17 Aug 2020

Understanding the relationship between movement and vision

To get a better look at the world around them, animals constantly are in motion. Primates and people use complex eye movements to focus their vision (as humans do when reading, for instance); birds, insects, and rodents do the same by moving their heads, and can even estimate distances that way.

15 Aug 2020

COVID-19 virus acts as a 'sponge' to deplete specific host microRNAs

Why is the COVID-19 virus deadly, while many other coronaviruses are fairly innocuous and just cause colds?

15 Aug 2020

Scientists hope to find clues about how life emerged by tinkering with its oldest components

"I'm fascinated with life, and that's why I want to break it."

15 Aug 2020

Research shows how a protein stops cells from attacking their own DNA

Viruses multiply by injecting their DNA into a host cell. Once it enters the intracellular fluid, this foreign material triggers a defense mechanism known as the cGAS-STING pathway.

14 Aug 2020

Study identifies new set of multi-tasking taste cells

Our mouths may be home to a newly discovered set of multi-tasking taste cells that - unlike most known taste cells, which detect individual tastes - are capable of detecting sour, sweet, bitter and umami stimuli.

13 Aug 2020

Research reveals how quickly pre-cancerous skin lesions can form on the DNA

Luis Ortiz-Rodríguez grew up on the beaches of Puerto Rico--surfing, swimming and running in the hot sand--and swears he had never put on sunblock a day in his life.

13 Aug 2020

Single-cell analysis provides new details about mitochondrial diseases

Investigators led by a team at Massachusetts General Hospital have made discoveries at the single cell level to uncover new details concerning mitochondrial diseases-- inherited disorders that interfere with energy production in the body and currently have no cure.

13 Aug 2020

Scientists unlock behavior of an enzyme involved in cancer spread

A new insight into cell signals that control cancer growth and migration could help in the search for effective anti-cancer drugs. A McGill-led study reveals key biochemical processes that advance our understanding of colorectal cancer, the third most common cancer among Canadians.

12 Aug 2020