The light of fireflies for medical diagnostics

In biology and medicine, we often need to detect biological molecules. For example, in cancer diagnostics, doctors need quick and reliable ways of knowing if tumor cells are present in the patient's body. Although such detection ...

Small signaling molecule gives green light for cell division

Generating offspring is the evolutionary goal of all living organisms. The multiplication of individual cells is coordinated by the cell cycle. For the discovery of how this process is regulated in eukaryotes the Noble Prize ...

Evolution of the back-to-belly axis

Most animals have a dorso-ventral (back-to-belly) body axis, which determines for instance the localized position of the central nervous system, dorsal in humans, ventral in insects. Surprisingly, despite enormous morphological ...

Protein threshold linked to Parkinson's disease

The circumstances in which a protein closely associated with Parkinson's Disease begins to malfunction and aggregate in the brain have been pinpointed in a quantitative manner for the first time in a new study.

How cells communicate

During embryonal development of vertebrates, signaling molecules inform each cell at which position it is located. In this way, the cell can develop its special structure and function. For the first time now, researchers ...

A better understanding of cell to cell communication

Researchers of the ISREC Institute at the School of Life Sciences, EPFL, have deciphered the mechanism whereby some microRNAs are retained in the cell while others are secreted and delivered to neighboring cells.

An embryonic cell's fate is sealed by the speed of a signal

When embryonic cells get the signal to specialize the call can come quickly. Or it can arrive slowly. Now, new research from Rockefeller University suggests the speed at which a cell in an embryo receives that signal has ...

Detecting tumor markers easily

Blood is just teeming with proteins. It's not easy there to identify specialized tumor markers indicating the presence of cancer. A new method now enables diagnostics to be carried out in a single step. Scientists will present ...

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