News tagged with cell biology

Insight into cell survival

Researchers at Tokyo Institute of Technology report details on the biological mechanisms through which cells degrade own cellular material, allowing them to survive starvation conditions.

Medical research created May 17, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Researchers identify target to prevent hardening of arteries

The hardening of arteries is a hallmark of atherosclerosis, an often deadly disease in which plaques, excessive connective tissue, and other changes build up inside vessel walls and squeeze off the flow of ...

Cardiology created May 16, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Vicious cycle: Obesity sustained by changes in brain biochemistry

With obesity reaching epidemic levels in some parts of the world, scientists have only begun to understand why it is such a persistent condition. A study in the Journal of Biological Chemistry adds substantially to the st ...

Medical research created May 16, 2013 | popularity 3 / 5 (2) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Endothelium, heal thyself: A fresh look at this resilient, adaptable tissue

(Medical Xpress)—The endothelium, the cellular layer lining the body's blood vessels, is extremely resilient. Measuring just a few hundred nanometers in thickness, this super-tenuous structure routinely ...

Medical research created May 16, 2013 | popularity 4 / 5 (2) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Newly described type of immune cell and T cells share similar path to maturity, according to new study

(Medical Xpress)—Labs around the world, and a core group at Penn, have been studying recently described populations of immune cells called innate lymphoid cells (ILCs). Some researchers liken them to foot soldiers that ...

Immunology created May 14, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Scientists develop drug that slows Alzheimer's in mice

A drug developed by scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, known as J147, reverses memory deficits and slows Alzheimer's disease in aged mice following short-term treatment. The findings, ...

Alzheimer's disease & dementia created May 13, 2013 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (5) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Not all cytokine-producing cells start out the same way, study finds

(Medical Xpress)—Cytokines are molecules produced by immune cells that induce the migration of other cells to sites of infection or injury, promote the production of anti-microbial agents, and signal the production of inflammatory ...

Immunology created May 13, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Mutation causing wrong-way plumbing explains one type of blue-baby syndrome

Total anomalous pulmonary venous connection (TAPVC), one type of "blue baby" syndrome, is a potentially deadly congenital disorder that occurs when pulmonary veins don't connect normally to the left atrium of the heart. This ...

Medical research created May 12, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Cells must use their brakes moderately for effective speed control

How cells regulate their own function by "accelerating and braking" is important basic knowledge when new intelligent medicines are being developed, or when plant cells are tweaked to produce more bioenergy. In a study published ...

Medical research created May 15, 2013 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Engineering tissue to rebuild damaged bones and organs

From the chimera in Greek mythology to the sphinx in ancient Egypt, humans have imagined making creatures from pieces of different organisms for millennia.

Medical research created May 15, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

What role do processing bodies play in cell survival and protection against viral infection?

As scientists learn more about processing bodies (PBs), granules present within normal cells, they are unraveling the complex role PBs play in maintaining cellular homeostasis by regulating RNA metabolism ...

Medical research created May 16, 2013 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0

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.
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