https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. The sugar glucose, which is the main source of energy in almost every living cell, has been revealed in a Stanford Medicine study to also be a master regulator of tissue differentiation—the process by which stem cells give rise to specialized cells that make up all the body's tissues. https://phys.org/news/2025-03-glucose-life-reveals-role-master.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 26 Mar 2025 12:02:00 EDT news662209316 Blood vessels engineered from stem cells could help solve several research and clinical problems, from potentially providing a more comprehensive platform to screen if drug candidates can cross from the blood stream into the brain to developing lab-grown vascular tissue to support heart transplants, according to Penn State researchers. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-keys-blood-vessels.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 21 Mar 2024 15:40:04 EDT news630254402 Bricklayer, banker, teacher—choosing a career is one of the most exciting and important decisions in our lives. At the beginning of embryonic development, our cells are also faced with this decision. Some of them become blood cells, others muscle cells and still others become nerve cells. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-scientists-molecules-bmp-fgf-cell.html Cell & Microbiology Tue, 19 Sep 2023 09:38:03 EDT news614335082 A well-functioning immune system is essential for protection against infections. However, with increasing age, the functioning of the immune system diminishes, which is also due to age-related damage in hematopoietic (blood) stem cells. Researchers at the Leibniz Institute on Aging—Fritz Lipmann Institute (FLI) in Jena, Germany, have now discovered how the co-activator of the Hippo signaling pathway, the TAZ protein, can protect hematopoietic stem cells from aging and thus prevent them from loss of function. Moreover, hematopoietic stem cells age very heterogeneously. In addition to old cells, one can also find "youthful" cells when the protective mechanism has worked effectively. https://phys.org/news/2022-10-blood-stem-cells-taz-protein.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 10 Oct 2022 08:41:04 EDT news584610061 Diabetes is characterized by persistent high blood sugar levels that occur when certain cells in the pancreas—the insulin-producing β cells—are destroyed or are no longer able to secrete insulin. Researchers at the University of Geneva (UNIGE) have succeeded in showing how part of the pancreatic α and δ cells, which usually produce other hormones, can take over from the damaged β cells by starting to produce insulin. By observing how these cells manage to modify their function by partially changing their identity, the researchers discovered a phenomenon of cell plasticity unknown until now. Furthermore, beyond the pancreas, such processes might characterize many other cell types in the body. These results, to be read in Nature Cell Biology, lead to envision entirely new therapeutic strategies that could harness the body's own regenerative capacities. https://phys.org/news/2018-10-cells-jobs-diabetes.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 22 Oct 2018 11:00:01 EDT news459419738 Could tumours help us explain the explosion of life of Earth? Scientists have typically explained the period of history when large animal species became much more diverse very quickly as the result of the planet's rising oxygen levels. But my colleagues and I have developed a new idea that the change might have started within animals' own biology, based on evidence from proteins found in tumours. It wasn't until animals developed these proteins that they could take advantage of the oxygen and start diversifying. https://phys.org/news/2018-01-cancer-tumours-unravel-mystery-cambrian.html Earth Sciences Tue, 23 Jan 2018 09:32:36 EST news435922330 Many things go wrong in cells during the development of cancer. At the heart of the chaos are often genetic switches that control the production of new cells. In a particularly aggressive form of leukemia, called acute myeloid leukemia, a genetic switch that regulates the maturation of blood stem cells into red and white blood cells goes awry. Normally, this switch leads to appropriate numbers of white and red blood cells. But patients with acute myeloid leukemia end up with a dangerous accumulation of blood stem cells and a lack of red and white blood cells—cells that are needed to supply the body with oxygen and fight infections. https://phys.org/news/2017-05-closer-genetic-cancer.html Biochemistry Mon, 22 May 2017 15:00:06 EDT news414683105 Researchers working with flies at IRB Barcelona describe that the concentration of some small intracellular organelles determines the branching capacity of tracheal cells. https://phys.org/news/2016-09-insights-blood-vessel-formation.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 29 Sep 2016 13:06:48 EDT news394373202 An international team of researchers led by ETH scientists has been studying the factors influencing the development of different blood cells. Their research shows that certain molecular mechanisms are not as relevant as previously assumed. This finding helps to improve our understanding of diseases such as leukemia and anemia. https://phys.org/news/2016-07-cell-fates.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 27 Jul 2016 09:56:45 EDT news388832193 In 1917, Florence Sabin, the first female member of the US National Academy of Sciences, discovered hemangioblasts, the common precursor cells for blood cells and blood vessel endothelia. Her discovery faced a great deal of critical opinions, but by the end of the 20th century, those opinions were overcome, and the existence of hemangioblasts had at long last come to be acknowledged. In the present day, the existence of hemangioblasts has been proven not only in chicken embryos, which Sabin had studied, but in the embryos of humans, mice, and fish as well. Furthermore, it has become clear that the precursor cells are present not only during the fetal period, but also in adult organisms. However, the mechanism by which hemangioblasts differentiated into blood cells and vascular endothelia remained a mystery in many aspects. https://phys.org/news/2016-01-mechanism-blood-cells.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 20 Jan 2016 08:04:59 EST news372499490 Pluripotent stem cells derived from different cell types are equally susceptible to reprogramming, indicates a recent study. https://phys.org/news/2016-01-donor-genotype-differentiation-ips-cellssource.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 14 Jan 2016 12:00:06 EST news371974682 Steve Oh had been growing stem cells by conventional means at the A*STAR Bioprocessing Technology Institute (BTI) for seven years, when in 2008 his colleague Shaul Reuveny proposed an idea for speeding up the process. https://phys.org/news/2015-06-mass-producing-stem-cells-demands-regenerative.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 24 Jun 2015 07:10:01 EDT news354348024 A co-author of a Japanese study that promised a revolutionary way to create stem cells has called for the headline-grabbing research to be retracted over claims its data was faulty. https://phys.org/news/2014-03-stem-cell-scientist-retraction.html Cell & Microbiology Tue, 11 Mar 2014 04:13:49 EDT news313730012 A Japanese research institute Tuesday said it was probing its own study that promised a 'game changer' way to create stem cells, a feat hailed as revolutionary for the fast-developing field. https://phys.org/news/2014-02-game-japan-stem-cell.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 19 Feb 2014 05:07:43 EST news312008852 Picture two charged particles in a vacuum. Thanks to laws of elementary electrostatics, we can easily calculate the force these particles exert upon one another, and therefore predict their movements. https://phys.org/news/2012-11-vacuum-movement-particles-complex-media.html General Physics Wed, 28 Nov 2012 11:12:31 EST news273323541 Blood cells originate from a small pool of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) through a complex process of differentiation steps that are tightly regulated at the transcriptional level. Dissecting the mechanisms underlying this control will aid the understanding of how these particular cellular states are generated. https://phys.org/news/2012-10-hematopoietic-differentiation.html Cell & Microbiology Fri, 05 Oct 2012 08:23:29 EDT news268644203 Regulation of gene expression is essential to make sure cell maturation occurs as it should. European research is taking an integrated perspective on how selected steps in liver and blood cell differentiation can be modulated. https://phys.org/news/2012-07-path-stem-cell-maturity.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 16 Jul 2012 10:03:57 EDT news261651819 Chinese stem cell scientists have published new research that improves the survival and effectiveness of transplanted stem cells. The research led by Dr Hsiao Chang Chan, from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, is published in Stem Cells. https://phys.org/news/2011-11-reprogramming-stem-cells-basic-results.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 03 Nov 2011 05:21:08 EDT news239516460