Body

A key protein controls stem cell properties that could make them more useful in regenerative medicine, according to a study led by Mount Sinai researchers and published online today in the journal Cell Stem Cell.

Cells have characteristic sizes in different organisms and in different tissues in the same organism. How cells regulate their size and how cell size affects organism growth are among the remaining mysteries in cell biology. Research carried out at the John Innes Centre has shown that the stem cells that sustain plant growth actively control their size and that this process is important for the correct development of organs such as flowers.

This year's Nobel Prize in chemistry was given to three scientists who each focused on one piece of the DNA repair puzzle. Now a new study, reported online Oct. 28 in the journal Nature, reports the discovery of a new class of DNA repair enzyme.

HANOVER, N.H. - Dartmouth researchers have found that some proteins turn into liquid droplets on the way to becoming toxic solids implicated in neurodegenerative diseases and other genetic disorders.

The findings, along with a series of related studies by scientists at other institutions, appear in the journal Molecular Cell. A PDF of the study is available on request.

Finding parasites on fossils is a rarity, since, as we humans have experienced with a shudder, they tend to attach to skin or soft tissue and not skeleton. However, a discovery led by the University of Cincinnati not only has uncovered the ancient remnants of two parasites on marine animals, but also revealed how the parasites and hosts evolved over hundreds of years.

Scientists have found a new function of the nuclear membrane, the envelope that encases and protects DNA in the nucleus of a cell - it fixes potentially fatal breaks in DNA strands.

RIVERSIDE, Calif. - One day a few years ago, while working on wasps in a rainforest in Costa Rica, entomologist Kevin J. Loope, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Riverside, began reading about the enigmatic matricidal behavior of some social insects. In most social insects, such as bees, ants and wasps, the workers, which are all female, work their whole lives to help the queen produce new offspring. Yet, in the literature Loope found anecdotal reports of workers killing their queen, presenting a fascinating evolutionary puzzle.

A new online database will empower researchers exploring how hair follicles and the surrounding skin develop, according to an article published recently in the journal Developmental Cell. The work is central to understanding the interactions between stem cells and their environment - or "niche cells" - during fetal development, and will specifically facilitate future attempts to make skin grafts with functional hair follicles or to regenerate lost hair in patients.

An excess of bacteria in the gut can change the way the liver processes fat and could lead to the development of metabolic syndrome, according to health researchers.

Metabolic syndrome is a group of conditions including obesity, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high blood sugar and excess body fat around the waist. People experiencing three or more of these conditions are considered to have metabolic syndrome and are vulnerable to liver and heart diseases. Approximately 20 to 25 percent of adult Americans have the syndrome, according to the American Heart Association.

HOUSTON -- (Oct. 29, 2015) -- The concept that biodiversity feeds upon itself is an old idea, but it's difficult to prove because it requires biologists to simultaneously catch several species red-handed just as they are becoming new species. Now biologists have proof.

Live attenuated (weakened) viral vaccines are considered safe so long as their "reversal" to a virulent (or disease-causing) virus is prevented. A study published on October 29th in PLOS Pathogens reports on how to rationally modify an effective live attenuated SARS vaccine to make it genetically stable.

This news release is available in Spanish.

PORTLAND, Maine -- October 29, 2015 -- For centuries, cod were the backbone of New England's fisheries and a key species in the Gulf of Maine ecosystem. Today, cod stocks are on the verge of collapse, hovering at 3-4% of sustainable levels. Even cuts to the fishery have failed to slow this rapid decline, surprising both fishermen and fisheries managers. For the first time, a new report in Science explains why. It shows that the cod collapse is in large part due to rapid warming of the ocean in the Gulf of Maine - 99 percent faster than anywhere else on the planet.

As concerns over deadly antibiotic-resistant strains of 'superbug' bacteria grow, scientists at the Salk Institute are offering a possible solution to the problem: 'superhero' bacteria that live in the gut and move to other parts of the body to alleviate life-threatening side effects caused by infections.

The effects of new technologies and discoveries -- from nuclear power to medical treatments --often must be inferred long before they are experienced, forcing policymakers to rely on risk, cost and benefit analyses when deciding whether to use them.

In the Oct. 30 issue of Science, Carnegie Mellon University's Baruch Fischhoff critically examines these analytical methods, considering how they should be used and how they can be abused.