Latest Cell cycle Stories

The human body contains trillions of cells, all derived from a single cell, or zygote, made by the fusion of an egg and a sperm. That single cell contains all the genetic information needed to develop into a human, and passes identical copies of that information to each new cell as it divides into the many diverse types of cells that make up a complex organism like a human being. If each cell is genetically identical, however, how does it grow to be a skin, blood, nerve, bone or other type...

Mount Sinai researchers identify new targets that cause abnormal cell division Blocking certain enzymes in the cell may prevent cancer cell division and growth, according to new findings from researchers at the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. The discovery is published in the April 25, 2013 issue of the journal Molecular Cell. In order to divide, a cell needs to create copies of its genetic material to provide to the new cells,...

A better 'mousetrap' discovered in fruit flies might stop a human cancer-driving kinase in its tracks A seemingly obscure gene in the female fruit fly that is only active in cells that will become eggs has led researchers at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research to the discovery of a atypical protein that lures, traps, and inactivates the powerful Polo kinase, widely considered the master regulator of cell division. Its human homolog, Polo-like kinase-1 (Plk1), is misregulated in many...

Cell aging, or cellular senescence, has an important role in the natural physiological response to tumor development. Activated oncogenes are able to induce senescence, and recent findings have suggested that oncogene-induced senescence (OIS) could play a key role in future cancer therapy. Researchers have now identified a previously unknown mechanism in the regulation of OIS. This study is published online in advance of the January issue of The American Journal of Pathology. In many types...

Researchers at the University of Geneva, Switzerland, demonstrate that the receptors that bind the toxin of this bacterium control how cell division is oriented Anthrax uses a receptor on the surface of cells to inject its lethal toxins. However, the physiological function of this receptor, named Anthrax Toxin Receptor 2a (Antxr2a), remained unknown until now. A team led by Marcos Gonzalez-Gaitan, a professor at the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, in collaboration with Gisou van...

Biologists have identified a new molecular player in asymmetric cell division, a protein named She1 whose role wasn't known before - This is important for self-renewal of stem cells and ensures that daughter cells have different fates and functions Recently biologists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst led by Wei-lih Lee have identified a new molecular player in asymmetric cell division, a regulatory protein named She1 whose role in chromosome- and spindle positioning wasn't known...

Milk consumption has been linked to improved health, with decreased risks of diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and colon cancer. A group of scientists in Sweden found that lactoferricin4-14 (Lfcin4-14), a milk protein with known health effects, significantly reduces the growth rate of colon cancer cells over time by prolonging the period of the cell cycle before chromosomes are replicated. In a new study, investigators report that treatment with Lfcin4-14 reduced DNA damage in colon cancer cells...

Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center and colleagues at the University of South Florida have discovered a mechanism that explains how some cancer cells “hijack” a biological process to potentially activate cell growth and the survival of cancer gene expression. Their study appeared in a recent issue of Nature Structural & Molecular Biology. The newly discovered mechanism involves histones (highly alkaline proteins found in cells that package and order DNA), and in this case,...

Findings answer puzzling question of how cells know when to progress through the cell cycle It's a longstanding question in biology: How do cells know when to progress through the cell cycle? In simple organisms such as yeast, cells divide once they reach a specific size. However, determining if this holds true for mammalian cells has been difficult, in part because there has been no good way to measure mammalian cell growth over time. Now, a team of MIT and Harvard Medical School...

Stowers team reconciles puzzling findings relating to centromere structure Scientists at the Stowers Institute of Medical Research have developed an innovative method to count the number of fluorescent molecules in a cluster and then applied the novel approach to settle a debate rampant among cell biologists—namely, how DNA twists into a unique chromosomal structure called the centromere. Knowing this helps explain how cells navigate the hazards of division and avoid the disastrous...