Researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg have discovered a molecular “switch” that guides the development of the eye in a fish called medaka. The interaction of two proteins determines whether cells divide or specialize at a key moment as the eye forms. Researchers are keenly interested in such switches because the decision to replicate or differentiate is crucial to many processes, from the proper growth of embryos to the development of cancer. The story appears
A new imaging technique used by a group of researchers at the University of Washington and elsewhere has revealed a previously unknown cellular structure in the retinas of mice. The structure is the site for an important part of the retinoid cycle, a chemical process critical to vision, the scientists said. Results of their study, which took more than three years, appeared in the Feb. 2 issue of the Journal of Cell Biology.
Dubbed a retinosome, the newly discovered organelle houses retinyl
Cells that produce insulin have been unexpectedly found in the fat, liver and bone marrow of diabetic mice, said researchers at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) in a report that appeared today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“In fact, the appearance of insulin-producing cells occurs in both type 1 (juvenile) and type 2 (adult-onset) diabetic mice,” said Dr. Lawrence Chan, chief of the BCM endocrinology section and professor in the department of medicine and molecular
A group of researchers from The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology at The Scripps Research Institute and from the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF) has identified a small synthetic molecule that can control the fate of embryonic stem cells.
This compound, called cardiogenol C, causes mouse embryonic stem cells to selectively differentiate into “cardiomyocytes,” or heart muscle cells, an important step on the road to developing new therapies for repairing damage
Two-pronged approach synergizes growth
Researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School have advanced a decades-old quest to get injured nerves to regenerate. By combining two strategies – activating nerve cells’ natural growth state and using gene therapy to mute the effects of growth-inhibiting factors – they achieved about three times more regeneration of nerve fibers than previously attained.
The study involved the optic nerve, which connects nerve c
A research team at Cornell University has succeeded in converting nitrogen into ammonia using a long-predicted process that has challenged scientists for decades.
The achievement involves using a zirconium metal complex to add hydrogen atoms to the nitrogen molecule and convert it to ammonia, without the need for high temperatures or high pressure.
“The value of our work is that we have answered the very basic chemical question of how to take this very inert and unreactive [nitrog
The work offers potential insights into disease processes, including cancer
Researchers at Jefferson Medical College and Jefferson’s Kimmel Cancer Center are gaining a better understanding of the cues that help guide cells to the right places in developing embryos. Steven Farber, Ph.D., assistant professor of microbiology and immunology at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, and his co-workers have found that statins, the group of anti-cholestero
Scientists at the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center have scientifically validated for the first time that stem cells in umbilical cord blood can infiltrate damaged heart tissue and transform themselves into the kind of heart cells needed to halt further damage.
Clinical proof of this principle has existed for a decade, as Duke physicians have used cord blood to correct heart, brain and liver defects in children with rare metabolic diseases. But until now they lacked the molecular evidence t
A fruit fly gene called radish, and the newly identified protein it encodes, have opened doors to understanding the genes and neuronal networks that govern a special type of memory, termed anesthesia-resistant memory. Researchers had previously known that for most animals — not just humans — loss of consciousness from anesthesia causes amnesia for recently experienced events. In contrast, for reasons that are not well understood, older memories are resistant to the effects of anesthesia. With the h
The recent marriage of evolutionary biology with developmental biology has resulted in the birth of a new field, evolutionary developmental biology, or “evo-devo.” Evo-devo scientists study the mechanisms that produce evolutionary changes in body plans over time. As one of the field’s creators, Indiana University Bloomington biologist Rudolf Raff brings new understanding to the evolution of humans and other organisms by uniting fossil data and information about the genes that control development
Researchers have successfully cloned a mouse using mature olfactory neurons as the genetic donor. The scientists credit the idea for the experiments to Woody Allen whose classic comedy Sleeper depicted scientists who try to clone a dead dictator from his nose.
The current study aims to answer longstanding questions about the developmental potential of mature cells. In doing their experiments, the researchers were seeking to determine whether a single mature olfactory neuron, when introduced
Scientists have created an unlimited supply of a type of nerve cell found in the spinal cord – a self-renewing cell line that offers a limitless supply of human nerve cells in the laboratory. Such a supply has long been one goal of neurologists anxious to replace dead or dying cells with healthy ones in a host of neurological diseases.
In this study, appearing in the March issue of Nature Biotechnology, the scientists then used the cells to partially repair damaged spinal cords in laborator
The fossil remains of early humans gave generations of scientists the clues needed to piece together much of our ancestral lineage. Chi-Hua Chiu now leads us into another dimension in the study of human origins: the underlying developmental and genetic processes that led to these remarkable evolutionary changes.
“To develop a better understanding of the genetic basis of human evolution, we must discover specific relationships between particular genetic changes and their resulting effects on
Advances in genetics during the last decade not only have influenced modern medicine, they also have changed how human evolution is studied, says an anthropologist from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Using her own research on the teeth of baboons as a case in point, Leslea J. Hlusko said that some of the traits considered important to human evolution, such as the thickness of molar enamel, may be too simplistically interpreted by some paleontologists.
Hlusko organ
The successful cloning of three mules and their excellent health is important to the horse industry, a University of Idaho scientist said Monday at Seattle.
More important is the potential human health aspects of the cloning project. Dr. Gordon Woods, UI professor of animal and veterinary science, said the work aided understanding of calcium’s role in cell signaling and possibly in the progression of human disease.
Woods, who directs the Northwest Equine Reproduction Laboratory
Since the advent of Darwinism in the mid-19th century, a variety of movements have jousted for the intellectual high ground in the epic evolution versus creationism debate.
At one end of the spectrum reside the “naturalistic evolutionists” who argue that life neither requires nor benefits from a divine creator. At the other pole, “scientific creationists” compress the entire history of the cosmos into 6,000 years and insist that the heavens and Earth and all life arose in one six-day creati
Feedback
