Atlanta, GA, USA – Using a combination of computational modeling and experimental techniques, a research team has developed new information about how intercellular communication affects the differentiation of an embryonic stem cell colony over time.
Bristol, UK – The discovery, published in Nature Materials, is the first chemically programmed approach to producing an artificial tissue. The findings, which could have major health applications in the future, could see chemically programmed synthetic tissue being used to support failing living tissues and to cure specific diseases.
Cambridge, MA, USA – Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences were able to produce healthy mice with two mothers that went on to have normal offspring of their own. Mice from two dads were also born but only survived for a couple of days.
Baltimore, MD, USA – Biologists at Johns Hopkins University grew human retinas from scratch to determine how cells that allow people to see in color are made. The work, published in the journal Science, lays the foundation to develop therapies for eye diseases such as color blindness and macular degeneration. It also establishes lab-created "organoids" as a model to study human development on a cellular level.
Denver, CO, USA – CDK1 is a “normal” protein – its presence drives cells through the cycle of replication. And MHC Class I molecules are “normal” as well – they present bits of proteins on the surfaces of cells for examination by the immune system. But a University of Colorado Cancer Center study published in the journal Cancer Research shows that a population of cancer cells marked by MHC Class I molecules and high CDK1 is anything but normal.
Atlanta, GA, USA – Cells' metabolic needs are not uniform across the brain, researchers have learned. "Knocking out" an enzyme that regulates mitochondria, cells' miniature power plants, specifically blocks the development of the mouse cerebellum more than the rest of the brain. The results are scheduled for publication in Science Advances.
Los Angeles, CA, USA – UCLA researchers have discovered a common process in the development of late-stage, small cell cancers of the prostate and lung. These shared molecular mechanisms could lead to the development of drugs to treat not just prostate and lung cancers, but small cell cancers of almost any organ.
Kanazawa, Japan – A Japan-based research team led by Kanazawa University has identified the MAPK Erk5 as a novel player controlling skeletogenesis. Their research sheds light on the question of how the complex our skeleton generates.
Barcelona, Spain – Researchers at the Centre for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona, Spain, have identified the mechanism by which an important enzyme involved in the differentiation of stem cells is brought to the DNA.
Cleveland, OH, USA – In two newly published papers, a scientific team at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine reports on the discovery and implementation of a new, more efficient method for generating an important brain stem cell in the laboratory. The findings pave the way for greater understanding of the underlying mechanisms of neurological disorders of myelin and ultimately, possible new treatment and prevention options. The studies were published in the September issues of Nature Communications and Stem Cell Reports.
