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In one of nature’s innovations, a single cell smashes and rebuilds its own genome

By Guest PostNovember 14, 2014Sciencealexander popp, benjamin leon bodirsky, DNA, existing antibiotic treatment, ilje pikaar, isabelle weindl, onions, princeton university, proteinreiche mikroben, sanjib bhakta, single cell, single celled organism, single molecules, Technology, therapeutic index

Life can be so intricate and novel that even a single cell can pack a few surprises, according to a study led by Princeton University researchers.

The pond-dwelling, single-celled organism Oxytricha trifallax has the remarkable ability to break its own DNA into nearly a quarter-million pieces and rapidly reassemble those pieces when it’s time to mate, the researchers report in the journal Cell. The organism internally stores its genome as thousands of scrambled, encrypted gene pieces. Upon mating with another of its kind, the organism rummages through these jumbled genes and DNA segments to piece together more than 225,000 tiny strands of DNA. This all happens in about 60 hours. (more…)

New Look Inside Cell Nucleus Could Improve Cancer Diagnostics

By Guest PostDecember 31, 2013Sciencebrain cells, cancer diagnostics, cell nucleus, cytoplasm, david galbraith, DNA, enzyme, genetic information, genetic photocopies, genome, genome sequence, messenger rna, organ functions, plant cell, roger lasken, single cell, tumor, types of cancer

Researchers have sequenced the entire messenger RNA – the “genetic photocopies” – contained in the nucleus of a single cell, a long-anticipated step toward better cancer diagnostics and other medical applications.

Researchers have successfully isolated and sequenced the entire messenger RNA – the “genetic photocopies” – contained in the nucleus of a single brain cell. This research, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, will help researchers better understand how organs function in health and disease and provide another stepping stone toward personalized medicine. (more…)

Tenfold boost in ability to pinpoint proteins in cancer cells

By Guest PostMarch 23, 2013Healthantibodies, array of colors, biology, biomarkers, cancerous, cell behavior, cell function, characteristics, color coding cells, color fluorescence, cyclical testing, diagnosis, fluorescent balls, low ph fluid, molecular level, oncology, pathology, patterns, pavel zrazhevskiy, quantum dots, semiconductor material, single cell, Technology, tissue biopsies, treatment of cancer, university of washington, xiaohu gao

Better diagnosis and treatment of cancer could hinge on the ability to better understand a single cell at its molecular level. New research offers a more comprehensive way of analyzing one cell’s unique behavior, using an array of colors to show patterns that could indicate why a cell will or won’t become cancerous.

A University of Washington team has developed a new method for color-coding cells that allows them to illuminate 100 biomarkers, a ten-time increase from the current research standard, to help analyze individual cells from cultures or tissue biopsies. The work is published this week (March 19) in Nature Communications. (more…)

How Do Cells Tell Time? Scientists Develop Single-Cell Imaging to Watch the Cell Clock

By Guest PostNovember 18, 2012Science24 hour, activity, biological noise, cell, cell division, circadian clock, cyclic gene, cyclic protein, cyclical behavior, embryonic segmentation, embryonic segments, emilie delaune, gene, gene activation, life, lifespan, mesoderm, mitosis, molecular clock, muscle, nathan shih, nervous system, notch signaling pathway, oscillating pattern, oscillation, paul françois, phase, protein, sharon amacher, signal, signal reception, single cell, somites, synchronization, tissue segments, vasculature, vertebrae, visualization, visualize, zebrafish embryos

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A new way to visualize single-cell activity in living zebrafish embryos has allowed scientists to clarify how cells line up in the right place at the right time to receive signals about the next phase of their life.

Scientists developed the imaging tool in single living cells by fusing a protein defining the cells’ cyclical behavior to a yellow fluorescent protein that allows for visualization. Zebrafish embryos are already transparent, but with this closer microscopic look at the earliest stages of life, the researchers have answered two long-standing questions about how cells cooperate to form embryonic segments that later become muscle and vertebrae. (more…)

Scientists from UCLA, Israel’s Technion Uncover Brain’s Code for Pronouncing Vowels

By Guest PostAugust 23, 2012Health, Scienceariel tankus, brain, brain cell, device, disease, electrode, frontal lobe, injury, institute of technology, Israel, itzhak fried, nature communication, neuro prosthetic, neurons, paralyze, single cell, speech, technion, temporal gyrus, ucla, unspoken word, vowel, vowel articulation

Discovery may hold key to restoring speech after paralysis

Diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease at 21, British physicist Stephen Hawking, now 70, relies on a computerized device to speak. Engineers are investigating the use of brainwaves to create a new form of communication for Hawking and other people suffering from paralysis.

—Daily Mail (U.K.)

Scientists at UCLA and the Technion, Israel’s Institute of Technology, have unraveled how our brain cells encode the pronunciation of individual vowels in speech.

Published in the Aug. 21 edition of the journal Nature Communications, the discovery could lead to new technology that verbalizes the unspoken words of people paralyzed by injury or disease. (more…)

Close Family Ties Keep Microbial Cheaters in Check, Study Finds

By Guest PostDecember 16, 2011Scienceamoebae, Antarctica, canopies, clonal lineage, cosmopolitan groups, david queller, deserts, dicty, dictyostelium discoideum, e coli, evolution, forest park, genes, jennie kuzdzal fick, joan strassmann, kissing kin, life cycles, multicellular organisms, mutation, national science foundation, obligate cheaters, sam scheiner, sara fox, single cell, slime mold, social amoeba, st. louis, tropical forests, washington university

*Experiments on “slime mold” explain why almost all multicellular organisms begin life as a single cell*

Any multicellular animal, from a blue whale to a human being, poses a special challenge for evolution.

Most of the cells in its body will die without reproducing; only a privileged few will pass their genes to the next generation.

How could the extreme degree of cooperation required by multicellular existence actually evolve? Why aren’t all creatures unicellular individualists determined to pass on their own genes? (more…)

Watching the Nervous System Being Wired in Real Time

By Guest PostDecember 2, 2011Sciencebill hathaway, daniel colon ramos, imaging technology, living organism, migration of cells, nervous system, neurodevelopmental atlas, new diseases, single cell, worm, yale, yale cell biologist, yale university

Thanks to a new imaging technology developed at Yale, the National Institutes of Health and Sloan-Kettering, scientists can now see for the first time the development of a living organism at the level of a single cell.

One of the developers, Yale cell biologist Daniel Colon-Ramos, illustrates the power of the new technology in this video that shows the migration of cells that will form the nervous system in a developing worm. (more…)

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