http://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. Water gives life. Researchers at Linköping University in Sweden now show how the cells in our bodies are driven mainly by water power – a discovery that in the long run opens the way for a new strategy in cancer therapy. http://phys.org/news287744961.html Biology Tue, 14 May 2013 10:09:28 EST news287744961 (Phys.org) —Mathematics is everywhere in nature, and this is illustrated by the spiral patterns in plants such as pine cones, sunflowers or the arrangement of leaves around a stem. Most plants produce a new bud at 137 degrees from its predecessor, and this mathematical precision leads to observable helices. Normally, the relative position of organs does not change during growth, because the stems grow straight. But if the connection between the cytoskeleton and cellulose is removed, the cellulose fibres are synthesized in a tilted fashion and the stems start to twist. As a result, the angle between successive flowers disappears, and is instead replaced by other mathematical patterns that prove to be equally robust. Incidentally, this work suggests that in the absence of regulation, all plant stems should twist rather than grow straight. http://phys.org/news286178815.html Biology Fri, 26 Apr 2013 07:07:01 EST news286178815 (Phys.org) —The amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum is the "favourite animal" for many biologists and some physicists: the unicellular organism, which usually lives in the soil, serves as a model for a very wide range of cells, which are able to change their shape or move as soon as they sense changes in the chemical concentrations of their surroundings. Examples of such cells include cancer cells, embryonic stem cells at a very early stage in their development, and cells involved in wound healing. Scientists are now fascinated by a formerly unknown characteristic of this amoeba: it oscillates internally at a 20-second interval. Within this period, the cytoskeleton, which gives the cell its internal stability, can reorganise itself. http://phys.org/news283071064.html Biology Thu, 21 Mar 2013 07:51:15 EST news283071064 Researchers have for the first time demonstrated that mechanical forces can control the depolymerization of actin, a critical protein that provides the major force-bearing structure in the cytoskeletons of cells. The research suggests that forces applied both externally and internally may play a much larger role than previously believed in regulating a range of processes inside cells. http://phys.org/news282990464.html Biology Wed, 20 Mar 2013 09:28:40 EST news282990464 The interior of every cell within our bodies is crisscrossed with a network of molecular highways upon which nutrients, replacement parts, and other vital materials travel to their appropriate location. The system is immensely complex, and wrong turns are among the cellular malfunctions observed in connection with diseases like Alzheimer's, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's Disease), and polycystic kidney disease. http://phys.org/news282917858.html Biology Tue, 19 Mar 2013 13:17:45 EST news282917858 What can green algae do for science if they weren't, well, green? That's the question biologists at UC San Diego sought to answer when they engineered a green alga used commonly in laboratories, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, into a rainbow of different colors by producing six different colored fluorescent proteins in the algae cells. http://phys.org/news281891216.html Biology Thu, 07 Mar 2013 15:08:06 EST news281891216 Researchers at Johns Hopkins have established a high-efficiency cell-cell fusion system, providing a new model to study how fusion works. The scientists showed that fusion between two cells is not equal and mutual as some assumed, but, rather, is initiated and driven by one of the fusion partners. The discovery, they say, could lead to improved treatments for muscular dystrophy, since muscle regeneration relies on cell fusion to make muscle fibers that contain hundreds or even thousands of nuclei. http://phys.org/news281885798.html Biology Thu, 07 Mar 2013 14:00:01 EST news281885798 Scientists at the Center for Molecular Biology of Heidelberg University have gained new insight into the process of mitosis in mammalian cells. Researchers under the direction of Prof. Dr. Frauke Melchior, in collaboration with colleagues from Göttingen, Milan and Memphis, have succeeded in deciphering a heretofore unknown mechanism that plays a key role in cell shape changes during mitosis. They investigated the transient degradation of a protein that regulates specific structures of the mechanical scaffold of the cell, the actin cytoskeleton. http://phys.org/news279951455.html Biology Wed, 13 Feb 2013 04:17:48 EST news279951455 (Phys.org)—The ability of fluorescence microscopy to study labeled structures like cells has now been empowered to deliver greater spatial and temporal resolutions that were not possible before, thanks to a new method developed by University of Illinois researcher Gabriel Popescu and Ru Wang from his lab. Using this method, they were able to study the critical process of cell transport dynamics at multiple spatial and temporal scales and reveal, for the first time, properties of diffusive and directed motion transport in living cells. http://phys.org/news271089931.html Physics Fri, 02 Nov 2012 15:45:56 EST news271089931 (Phys.org)—Swiss cell biologists at Empa want to "tune" implants such that they can better carry out their tasks in the human body. The surface of the implant is the key to success. Together with the Fraunhofer Institute IFAM, the Empa team developed a method to manufacture implants with the required surface "from a single cast". http://phys.org/news268557461.html Chemistry Thu, 04 Oct 2012 08:17:49 EST news268557461 A European team is investigating the role of the bacterial cell wall and the cytoskeleton in mediating cell shape. Results are expected to have broader implications for cell biology. http://phys.org/news268555833.html Biology Thu, 04 Oct 2012 07:50:42 EST news268555833 Cells can show a remarkable range of motility, creeping over substrates using a variety of pushes, pulls, stretches, and drags to get from A to B. This range of motion is achieved through the concerted efforts of motor proteins and structural complexes collectively known as the cytoskeleton. In addition to propulsion, however, cells also need to find footholds on surfaces in order to get the traction needed to advance or withdraw. Mobile single-celled organisms, such as the amoeba Dictyostelium, provide excellent living models for studying the molecular basis of such mechanisms, as they spend much of their lives solitary and on the crawl. http://phys.org/news267784630.html Biology Tue, 25 Sep 2012 09:37:20 EST news267784630 Programmed cell death (PCD) is a highly regulated process that occurs in all animals and plants as part of normal development and in response to the environment. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Plant Biology is the first to document the physiological events in the lace plant (Aponogeton madagascariensis) which occur via PCD to produce the characteristic holes in its leaves. http://phys.org/news262369844.html Biology Tue, 24 Jul 2012 20:00:01 EST news262369844 Every second, around 25 million cell divisions take place in our bodies. This process is driven by microtubule filaments which continually grow and shrink. A new study shows how so-called motor proteins in the cytosol can control their dynamics. http://phys.org/news260452108.html Biology Mon, 02 Jul 2012 12:48:35 EST news260452108 Kinesins assume a vital function in our cells: The tiny cargo transporters move important substances along lengthy protein fibers and ensure an effective transportation infrastructure. Biophysicists of the Technische Universitaet Muenchen and the Ludwig Maximillians Universitaet Muenchen have now discovered how some of these transporters can, like cars on a multi-lane motorway, change lanes. The researchers report on this hitherto unknown phenomenon in the current edition of the renowned journal Molecular Cell. http://phys.org/news254660373.html Biology Thu, 26 Apr 2012 12:00:02 EST news254660373 Cells on the move reach forward with lamellipodia and filopodia, cytoplasmic sheets and rods supported by branched networks or tight bundles of actin filaments. Cells without functional lamellipodia are still highly motile but lose their ability to stay on track, report researchers at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in the April 9, 2012, online issue of the Journal of Cell Biology. http://phys.org/news253185183.html Biology Mon, 09 Apr 2012 10:13:12 EST news253185183 Cell biologists at Johns Hopkins have identified key steps in how certain molecules alter a cell's skeletal shape and drive the cell's movement. http://phys.org/news247404804.html Biology Thu, 02 Feb 2012 11:33:42 EST news247404804 Interdisciplinary research between biology and physics aims to understand the cell and how it organizes internally. The mechanisms inside the cell are very complicated. LMU biophysicist Professor Erwin Frey, who is also a member of the Cluster of Excellence "Nanosystems Initiative Munich" (NIM) is working with his group on one particular issue involved in the cell's life. The professor for statistical and biological physics and his team, Louis Reese and Anna Melbinger, investigate the interplay of so-called molecular motors with the skeleton of the cell, the cytoskeleton. http://phys.org/news239886216.html Biology Mon, 07 Nov 2011 11:03:44 EST news239886216 Researchers at Harvard Medical School have discovered that structural elements in the cell play a crucial role in organizing the motion of cell-surface receptors, proteins that enable cells to receive signals from other parts of the organism. http://phys.org/news232891415.html Biology Thu, 18 Aug 2011 13:08:06 EST news232891415 In what they are calling a new direction in the study of Alzheimer's disease, UC Santa Barbara scientists have made an important finding about what happens to brain cells that are destroyed in Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. The results are published in the online version of The Journal of Biological Chemistry. http://phys.org/news226593498.html Chemistry Mon, 06 Jun 2011 15:39:08 EST news226593498 Revealing another part of the story of muscle development, Johns Hopkins researchers have shown how the cytoskeleton from one muscle cell builds finger-like projections that invade into another muscle cell's territory, eventually forcing the cells to combine. http://phys.org/news226372053.html Biology Sat, 04 Jun 2011 02:14:25 EST news226372053 A study led by Academy Research Fellow Eleanor Coffey identifies new players that put the brakes on. They show in mice that lack the star player "JNK1", that newborn neurons spend less time in the multipolar stage, which is when the cells prepare for subsequent expedition, possibly choosing the route to be taken. Having hurried through this stage, they move off at high speed to reach their final destinations in the cortex days earlier and less precisely than in a normal mouse. The results of their study are published in the latest issue of Nature Neuroscience. http://phys.org/news217850204.html Medicine & Health Fri, 25 Feb 2011 09:57:04 EST news217850204 (PhysOrg.com) -- When a cell is preparing to grow or replicate, it starts the way a monarch planning to expand his territory might: by identifying and marshaling the necessary resources, loading them onto the appropriate vehicles, and transporting them to the front line. http://phys.org/news215100841.html Biology Mon, 24 Jan 2011 14:14:25 EST news215100841 Research by engineers and cancer biologists at Virginia Tech indicate that using specific silicon microdevices might provide a new way to screen breast cancer cells' ability to metastasize. http://phys.org/news213877527.html Medicine & Health Mon, 10 Jan 2011 10:25:51 EST news213877527 During neural development, newborn neurons extend axons toward distant targets then form connections with other cells. This process depends on the growth cone, a dynamic structure at the growing axon tip of the neuron that detects attractive and repulsive guidance cues. Many axon guidance molecules have been identified, and their functions are well characterized, but exactly how they cause growth cone turning has been unclear. http://phys.org/news200073946.html Medicine & Health Tue, 03 Aug 2010 17:06:19 EST news200073946 (PhysOrg.com) -- Zemer Gitai, an assistant professor of molecular biology at Princeton University, members of his laboratory, and scientists from the California Institute of Technology have published results in Nature Cell Biology of new research into how a metabolic enzyme in bacteria forms cytoplasmic filaments that affect bacterial cell shape. http://phys.org/news199978396.html Biology Mon, 02 Aug 2010 14:34:21 EST news199978396 The APC protein serves as the colon's guardian, keeping tumors at bay. Now researchers reveal a new function for the protein: helping to renovate the cytoskeleton by triggering actin assembly. The result suggests a second way that mutations in APC could lead to cancer. The study appears online on June 21 in the Journal of Cell Biology. http://phys.org/news196346224.html Biology Mon, 21 Jun 2010 13:37:16 EST news196346224 Scientists at the University of California, San Diego have identified a previously unknown kinase that regulates cell proliferation, shape and migration, and may play a major role in the progression or metastasis of cancer cells. http://phys.org/news194505885.html Medicine & Health Mon, 31 May 2010 15:00:04 EST news194505885 (PhysOrg.com) -- In work that could lead to new insights into how neurons protect against neurodegeneration, researchers at MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory report that a gene family known for its role in controlling cell proliferation and suppressing tumors is also essential in the brain to regulate neuronal structure and function. http://phys.org/news190485558.html Medicine & Health Wed, 14 Apr 2010 19:10:01 EST news190485558 University of Chicago scientists have successfully used geometrically patterned surfaces to influence the development of stem cells. The new approach is a departure from that of many stem-cell biologists, who focus instead on uncovering the role of proteins in controlling the fate of stem cells. http://phys.org/news188059951.html Biology Wed, 17 Mar 2010 15:52:47 EST news188059951