This shows the epithelial tumor (in grey), expressing the Matrix Metalloproteinase MMP1, that helps degradate the membrane (in green). The wing of a fruit fly may hold the key to unraveling the genetic and molecular events that transform a normal cell into a cancerous one. The study, conducted on Drosophila melanogaster by scientists at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) and led by ICREA researcher Marco Milán, has reproduced each of the steps known to take place when a healthy cell turns cancerous. The researchers have thus provided an inexpensive and effective model that will allow the scientific community to scrutinize the genes and molecules involved in each step. Given that the vast majority of genes in Drosophila are conserved in mice and humans, the results obtained may also lead researchers to perform similar studies in more clinically relevant models. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA (PNAS) has published the study online this week.

Borrowing from microfabrication techniques used in the semiconductor industry, MIT and Harvard Medical School (HMS) engineers have developed a simple and inexpensive way to create three-dimensional brain tissues in a lab dish.

Ca2+ flux across the inner mitochondrial membrane regulates cell bioenergetics, cytoplasmic Ca2+ signals and activation of cell death pathways. Ca2+ uptake from the cytoplasm is driven by the electrochemical gradient... Most healthy cells rely on a complicated process to produce the fuel ATP. Knowing how ATP is produced by the cell's energy storehouse – the mitochondria -- is important for understanding a cell's normal state, as well as what happens when things go wrong, for example in cancer, cardiovascular disease, neurodegeneration, and many rare disorders of the mitochondria.

This is an image of an aged stem cell after growth factors were added. A new method of growing cardiac tissue is teaching old stem cells new tricks. The discovery, which transforms aged stem cells into cells that function like much younger ones, may one day enable scientists to grow cardiac patches for damaged or diseased hearts from a patient's own stem cells—no matter what age the patient—while avoiding the threat of rejection.

This is a detailed 3D-structure of the herpes virus: the capsid or protein shell, which contains the virus DNA, is surrounded by several envelope layers. The genome encodes the complete information needed by an organism, including that required for protein production. Viruses, which are up to a thousand times smaller than human cells, have considerably smaller genomes. Using a type of herpesvirus as a model system, the scientists of the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried near Munich and their collaboration partners at the University of California in San Francisco have shown that the genome of this virus contains much more information than previously assumed. The researchers identified several hundred novel proteins, many of which were surprisingly small.

Like a homeowner prepping for a hurricane, the bacterium Bacillus subtilis uses a long checklist to prepare for survival in hard times. In a new study, scientists at Rice University and the University of Houston uncovered an elaborate mechanism that allows B. subtilis to begin preparing for survival, even as it delays the ultimate decision of whether to "hunker down" and withdraw into a hardened spore.

New findings reveal the surprisingly complex protein-coding capacity of the human cytomegalovirus, or HCMV, and provide the first steps toward understanding how the virus manipulates human cells during infection. The genome of the HCMV was first sequenced over 20 years ago, but researchers have now investigated the proteome—the complete set of expressed proteins—of this common pathogen as well.

For the very first time researchers have streamed braille patterns directly into a blind patient's retina, allowing him to read four-letter words accurately and quickly with an ocular neuroprosthetic device. The device, the Argus II, has been implanted in over 50 patients, many of who can now see color, movement and objects. It uses a small camera mounted on a pair of glasses, a portable processor to translate the signal from the camera into electrical stimulation, and a microchip with electrodes implanted directly on the retina. The study was authored by researchers at Second Sight, the company who developed the device, and has been published in Frontiers in Neuroprosthetics on the 22nd of November.

This is an optical image of the 3-D array with individual light ports illuminated. A new tool for neuroscientists delivers a thousand pinpricks of light to a chunk of gray matter smaller than a sugar cube. The new fiber-optic device, created by biologists and engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, is the first tool that can deliver precise points of light to a 3-D section of living brain tissue. The work is a step forward for a relatively new but promising technique that uses gene therapy to turn individual brain cells on and off with light.

Many of the world's most unfamiliar species are just sitting around on museum shelves collecting dust. That's according to a report in the November 20th issue of the Cell Press journal Current Biology showing that it takes more than 20 years on average before a species, newly collected, will be described.

In a breakthrough for nanotechnology and multiple sclerosis, a biodegradable nanoparticle turns out to be the perfect vehicle to stealthily deliver an antigen that tricks the immune system into stopping its attack on myelin and halt a model of relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (MS) in mice, according to new Northwestern Medicine research.

Whether you are an apple tree or an antelope, survival depends on using your energy efficiently. In a difficult or dangerous situation, the key question is whether exerting effort — sending out roots in search of nutrients in a drought or running at top speed from a predator — will be worth the energy.

In a mouse model of multiple sclerosis (MS), researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have developed innovative technology to selectively inhibit the part of the immune system responsible for attacking myelin—the insulating material that encases nerve fibers and facilitates electrical communication between brain cells.

The prevailing wisdom has been that every cell in the body contains identical DNA. However, a new study of stem cells derived from the skin has found that genetic variations are widespread in the body's tissues, a finding with profound implications for genetic screening, according to Yale School of Medicine researchers.

For the first time, researchers have used DNA sequencing to help bring an infectious disease outbreak in a hospital to a close.

In a major international study, the pig genome is now mapped. Researchers from Uppsala University and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), have contributed to the study by analysing genes that played a key role in the evolution of the domesticated pig and by mapping endogenous retroviruses (ERV), retroviruses whose genes have become part of the host organism's genome. The findings are now being published in the journals Nature and PNAS.

Professor Len Harrison (pictured) and Dr Ilia Banakh have identified stem cells in the adult pancreas that can be turned into insulin producing cells, a discovery that may lead to... Stem cells in the adult pancreas have been identified that can be turned into insulin producing cells, a finding that means people with type 1 diabetes might one day be able to regenerate their own insulin-producing cells.

UC Irvine biologists have discovered that fats within cells store a class of proteins with potent antibacterial activity, revealing a previously unknown type of immune system response that targets and kills bacterial infections.

As they develop, vertebrate embryos form vertebrae in a sequential, time-controlled way. Scientists have determined previously that this process of body segmentation is controlled by a kind of "clock," regulated by the oscillating activity of certain genes within embryonic cells. But questions remain about how precisely this timing system works.

A new study demonstrates the dynamic role cilia play in guiding the migration of neurons in the embryonic brain. Cilia are tiny hair-like structures on the surfaces of cells, but here they are acting more like radio antennae.

Australian marine scientists have unearthed evidence of an historic coral collapse in Queensland's Palm Islands following development on the nearby mainland.

The Soldier beetle is the first animal found to produce the exotic fatty acid dihydromatriciaria. New antibiotic and anti-cancer chemicals may one day be synthesised using biotechnology, following CSIRO's discovery of the three genes that combine to provide soldier beetles with their potent predator defence system.

The Classic Maya culture thrived in rainy times and then collapsed in turmoil as the weather turned to drought, according to new research.

Researchers have mapped the precise 3-D atomic structure of a thin protein filament critical for cells in the inner ear and calculated the force necessary to pull it apart.

This shows an oligodendrocyte nerve cell (red/purple) wrapped around a polymer nanofiber (white/clear). Every week in his clinic at the University of Michigan, neurologist Joseph Corey, M.D., Ph.D., treats patients whose nerves are dying or shrinking due to disease or injury.

Cockatoo Figaro makes wooden tools by itself, in order to get food. Goffin's cockatoos are a highly playful and curious Indonesian cockatoo species. Therefore, cognitive biologists are now using them as a model species to investigate intelligent behaviour in birds. Together with researchers from the University of Oxford, Alice Auersperg and Birgit Szabo from the Department of Cognitive Biology at the University of Vienna have made a sensational discovery: "We were able to film the cockatoo 'Figaro' using its powerful beak to cut long splinters out of wooden beams or breaking off and modifying a side arm of a branch, to rake in a nut that was out of its direct reach", explains Alice Auersperg, who led the study.

Sudhir Kumar directs the Center for Evolutionary Medicine and Informatics at the Biodesign Institute, Arizona State University. With its deeply embedded roots, sturdy trunk and dense profusion of branches, the Tree of Life is a structure of nearly unfathomable complexity and beauty. While major strides have been made to establish the evolutionary hierarchy encompassing every living species, the project is still in its infancy.

Researchers from Aarhus University, Denmark, have now discovered an important mechanism behind one of our most fundamental lines of immune function. The discovery has been published in the esteemed scientific journal, The Journal of Immunology, where it has been highlighted as a top story.

The glowing areas in this zebrafish embryo show the activity of one of the brain enhancer sequences identified. Johns Hopkins researchers have succeeded in teaching computers how to identify commonalities in DNA sequences known to regulate gene activity, and to then use those commonalities to predict other regulatory regions throughout the genome. The tool is expected to help scientists better understand disease risk and cell development.

At least 2 million people worldwide will be infected with HIV this year, driving the need for better HIV prevention strategies to slow the global pandemic. A better understanding of how to prevent HIV transmission using antiviral drugs led to approval of the first oral pill for HIV prevention, and microbicides delivered as topical gels or via intravaginal rings are in clinical testing and have yielded both positive and negative results. The complex factors involved in the sexual transmission of HIV, the urgent need for new preventive approaches, and the most promising methods currently in development are examined in a special issue of AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc, publishers. The entire issue is available free on the AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses website at http://www.liebertpub.com/aid.

In a new study, University at Buffalo scientists describe the role that a protein called TFIIB plays in helping cells repair DNA damage, a critical function for preventing the growth of tumors.

Plant roots are surrounded by thousands of bacteria and fungi living in the soil and on the root surface. To survive in this diverse environment, plants employ sophisticated detection systems to distinguish pathogenic microorganisms from beneficial microorganisms.