News tagged with cell biology

Folding light: Wrinkles and twists boost power from solar panels

Taking their cue from the humble leaf, researchers have used microscopic folds on the surface of photovoltaic material to significantly increase the power output of flexible, low-cost solar cells.

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Apr 27, 2012 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (15) | comments 8 | with audio podcast

Study dusts sugar coating off little-known regulation in cells

In Alzheimer's disease, brain neurons become clogged with tangled proteins. Scientists suspect these tangles arise partly due to malfunctions in a little-known regulatory system within cells. Now, researchers have dramatically ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Apr 16, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Alan Turing's 1950s tiger stripe theory proved

Researchers from King's College London have provided the first experimental evidence confirming a great British mathematician's theory of how biological patterns such as tiger stripes or leopard spots are ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Feb 19, 2012 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (64) | comments 23 | with audio podcast

Scientists discover molecular secrets of 2,000-year-old Chinese herbal remedy

For roughly two thousand years, Chinese herbalists have treated Malaria using a root extract, commonly known as Chang Shan, from a type of hydrangea that grows in Tibet and Nepal. More recent studies suggest that halofuginone, ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Feb 12, 2012 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (28) | comments 29 | with audio podcast

Physicists devise method for building artificial tissue

New York University physicists have developed a method that models biological cell-to-cell adhesion that could also have industrial applications.

Physics / General Physics

created May 28, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Copy of the genetic makeup travels in a protein suitcase

Scientists from the Institute for Physical and Theoretical Chemistry at the University of Bonn have succeeded for the first time in the real time filming of the transport of an important information carrier in biological ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created May 25, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

A cell's first steps: Building a model to explain how cells grow

A collaboration between Lehigh University physicists and University of Miami biologists addresses an important fundamental question in basic cell biology: How do living cells figure out when and where to grow?

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created May 18, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Virus 'barcodes' offer rapid detection of mutated strains

Researchers at the University of Leeds are developing a way to 'barcode' viral diseases to rapidly test new outbreaks for potentially lethal mutations.

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created May 13, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Researchers discover novel approach to stimulate immune cells

Researchers at Rutgers University have uncovered a new way to stimulate activity of immune cell opiate receptors, leading to efficient tumor cell clearance.

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created May 11, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

New screening technique yields elusive compounds to block immune-regulating enzyme

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have found the first chemical compounds that act to block an enzyme that has been linked to inflammatory conditions such as asthma and arthritis, as well as some ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created May 11, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Research team gives drug dropouts a second chance

(Phys.org) -- A cross-disciplinary team of researchers at the University of Maryland has designed a molecular container that can hold drug molecules and increase their solubility, in one case up to nearly ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created May 07, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Separating signal from noise in living cells

A mathematician from the University of Bristol has teamed up with a biologist from the University of Edinburgh to address a major problem in molecular biology.

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created May 07, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (2) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Light touch keeps a grip on delicate nanoparticles

(Phys.org) -- Using a refined technique for trapping and manipulating nanoparticles, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have extended the trapped particles' useful life ...

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

created May 03, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Researchers gain better understanding of mechanism behind tau spreading in the brain

Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have gained insight into the mechanism by which a pathological brain protein called tau contributes to the progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other neurodegenerative ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created May 02, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Jarid2 may break the Polycomb silence

Historically, fly and human Polycomb proteins were considered textbook exemplars of transcriptional repressors, or proteins that silence the process by which DNA gives rise to new proteins. Now, work by a ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Apr 30, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Cell biology

Cell biology (formerly cytology, from the Greek kytos, "container") is an academic discipline that studies cells – their physiological properties, their structure, the organelles they contain, interactions with their environment, their life cycle, division and death. This is done both on a microscopic and molecular level. Cell biology research encompasses both the great diversity of single-celled organisms like bacteria and protozoa, as well as the many specialized cells in multicellular organisms like humans.

Knowing the components of cells and how cells work is fundamental to all biological sciences. Appreciating the similarities and differences between cell types is particularly important to the fields of cell and molecular biology as well as to biomedical fields such as cancer research and developmental biology. These fundamental similarities and differences provide a unifying theme, sometimes allowing the principles learned from studying one cell type to be extrapolated and generalized to other cell types. Hence, research in cell biology is closely related to genetics, biochemistry, molecular biology and developmental biology.

For more information about Cell biology, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.