News by Subject Biology

Molecular biologists led by Leonid Pobezinsky and his wife and research collaborator Elena Pobezinskaya at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have published results that for the first time show how a microRNA molecule known as Lethal-7 (let-7) serves as a molecular control hub to direct the function of cytotoxic T lymphocytes by putting the brakes on their cell-killing activities.

A University of Guelph professor has identified a protein that enables fish to change the size of their hearts based on the temperature of the water. Understanding how fish are able to naturally add and remove collagen could lead to the development of treatment modalities for humans that enables a more controlled way for the heart to repair itself after a heart attack.

One of the key questions in stem cell and cancer biology is to understand the cellular hierarchy governing tissue development and maintenance and the cancer cell of origin. In a study published in Cell Reports, researchers lead by Cédric Blanpain (Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium) identified a novel lineage-restricted stem cell in the mammary gland. In the future, this model will be used to assess whether the clinical heterogeneity observed in breast cancers arises from their different cancer cell of origin.

Identifying the basic cellular malfunction underlying amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and a form of dementia opens the pathway to developing treatments to prevent the disease by preserving neurons.

An abundance of an amino acid called methionine, which is common in meat, cheese and beans, may provide new clues to the fetal brain development that can manifest in schizophrenia, University of California, Irvine pharmacology researchers report in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.