Related topics: stem cells · transcription factors

Neural stem cells control their own fate

To date, it has been assumed that the differentiation of stem cells depends on the environment they are embedded in. A research group at the University of Basel now describes for the first time a mechanism by which hippocampal ...

How packing away DNA stabilizes cell fate decisions

Susan Gasser and her group at the FMI have identified in C. elegans a much sought-for anchor protein, a previously uncharacterized chromodomain protein called CEC-4 that directly sequesters inactive chromatin at the nuclear ...

How a single molecule turns one immune cell into another

All it takes is one molecule to reprogram an antibody-producing B cell into a scavenging macrophage. This transformation is possible, new evidence shows, because the molecule (C/EBPa, a transcription factor) "short-circuits" ...

In directing stem cells, study shows context matters

Figuring out how blank slate stem cells decide which kind of cell they want to be when they grow up—a muscle cell, a bone cell, a neuron—has been no small task for science.

Scientists find trigger to decode the genome

Scientists from The University of Manchester have identified an important trigger that dictates how cells change their identity and gain specialised functions.

Growing cells with 3D microgels

Stars, diamonds, circles: Rather than your average bowl of Lucky Charms, these are three-dimensional cell cultures generated by an exciting new digital microfluidics platform, the results of which have been published in Nature ...

Cell cycle speed is key to making aging cells young again

A fundamental axiom of biology used to be that cell fate is a one-way street—once a cell commits to becoming muscle, skin, or blood it always remains muscle, skin, or blood cell. That belief was upended in the past decade ...

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