Latest Morphogenesis Stories
In a study that holds major implications for breast cancer research as well as basic cell biology, scientists with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have discovered a rotational motion that plays a critical role in the ability of breast cells to form the spherical structures in the mammary gland known as acini. This rotation, which the researchers call “CAMo,” for coherent angular motion, is necessary for the cells to form...
• This transformation, which is common in embryonic development, is very similar to the process undergone by metastatic tumor cells. • The gene GATA 6 is sufficient and necessary for this change to happen. This gene is associated with many tumors of endodermal origin, such as those of the liver, pancreas and colon. Researchers at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) have identified the gene GATA 6 as responsible for epithelial cells -which group together and are...
Stem cell technologies have been proposed for cell-based diagnostics and regenerative medicine therapies. However, being able to make stem cells efficiently develop into a desired cell type -- such as muscle, skin, blood vessels, bone or neurons -- limits the clinical potential of these technologies.New research presented on June 16, 2011 at the annual meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) shows that systematically controlling the local and global environments...
One of the most intriguing questions in cancer research is what causes metastatic tumor migration, why some tumor cells manage to migrate to other parts of the body but others cells don't. International investigation conducted by Enrique MartÃn Blanco, CSIC researcher at the Institute of Biology of Barcelona, located in the Barcelona Science Park, reveals that cells make use of a natural mechanism for this. It happens to be a family of proteins that trigger cell migration in normal...
By Ramis-Conde, Ignacio Drasdo, Dirk; Anderson, Alexander R A; Chaplain, Mark A J ABSTRACT In this article, we show, using a mathematical multiscale model, how cell adhesion may be regulated by interactions between E-cadherin and beta-catenin and how the control of cell adhesion may be related to cell migration, to the epithelial- mesenchymal transition and to invasion in populations of eukaryotic cells. E-cadherin mediates cell-cell adhesion and plays a critical role in the formation and...
By Halldorsson, Skarphedinn Asgrimsson, Valthor; Axelsson, Ivar; Gudmundsson, Gudmundur Hrafn; Steinarsdottir, Margret; Baldursson, Olafur; Gudjonsson, Thorarinn Abstract Due to the cellular complexity of the airway epithelium, it is important to carefully define bronchial cell lines that capture the phenotypic traits of a particular cell type. We describe the characterization of a human bronchial epithelial cell line, VA10. It was established by transfection of primary bronchial epithelial...
