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News tagged with cells

New immune system discovered

(Medical Xpress)—A research team, led by Jeremy Barr, a biology post-doctoral fellow, unveils a new immune system that protects humans and animals from infection.

Immunology created May 20, 2013 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (25) | comments 8 | with audio podcast

The compound in the Mediterranean diet that makes cancer cells 'mortal'

New research suggests that a compound abundant in the Mediterranean diet takes away cancer cells' "superpower" to escape death. By altering a very specific step in gene regulation, this compound essentially re-educates cancer ...

Cancer created May 20, 2013 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (17) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Body clocks of depressed people altered at cell level, researchers show

Every cell in our bodies runs on a 24-hour clock, tuned to the night-day, light-dark cycles that have ruled us since the dawn of humanity. The brain acts as timekeeper, keeping the cellular clock in sync ...

Medical research created May 13, 2013 | popularity 4 / 5 (19) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Researchers cure epilepsy in mice using brain cells

UCSF scientists controlled seizures in epileptic mice with a one-time transplantation of medial ganglionic eminence (MGE) cells, which inhibit signaling in overactive nerve circuits, into the hippocampus, a brain region associated ...

Neuroscience created May 05, 2013 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (14) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Research reveals possible reason for cholesterol-drug side effects

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and physicians continue to document that some patients experience fuzzy thinking and memory loss while taking statins, a class of global top-selling cholesterol-lowering ...

Medical research created May 10, 2013 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (12) | comments 13 | with audio podcast

Making cancer less cancerous: Blocking a single gene renders tumors less aggressive

Researchers at Johns Hopkins have identified a gene that, when repressed in tumor cells, puts a halt to cell growth and a range of processes needed for tumors to enlarge and spread to distant sites. The researchers hope that ...

Cancer created May 02, 2013 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (10) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Study IDs key protein for cell death, offers way to kill cancer cells by forcing them into programmed-death pathway

When cells suffer too much DNA damage, they are usually forced to undergo programmed cell death, or apoptosis. However, cancer cells often ignore these signals, flourishing even after chemotherapy drugs have ...

Genetics created May 14, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (9) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Discovery of new hormone opens doors to new type 2 diabetes treatments

Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers have discovered that a particular type of protein (hormone) found in fat cells helps regulate how glucose (blood sugar) is controlled and metabolized (used for energy) in ...

Diabetes created May 07, 2013 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (8) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Insight into the dazzling impact of insulin in cells

Australian scientists have charted the path of insulin action in cells in precise detail like never before. This provides a comprehensive blueprint for understanding what goes wrong in diabetes.

Medical research created May 21, 2013 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (8) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

New cancer driver found: Monoclonal antibody therapy stops tumor growth in mice

(Medical Xpress)—Approximately 90 percent of cancers start within tissues that form the inner linings of various organs. Decades of accumulated genetic mutations can, on occasion, induce cells specialized ...

Cancer created May 08, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (7) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Drugs found to both prevent and treat Alzheimer's disease in mice

Researchers at USC have found that a class of pharmaceuticals can both prevent and treat Alzheimer's Disease in mice.

Alzheimer's disease & dementia created May 21, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (7) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Reducing caloric intake delays nerve cell loss

Activating an enzyme known to play a role in the anti-aging benefits of calorie restriction delays the loss of brain cells and preserves cognitive function in mice, according to a study published in the May ...

Neuroscience created May 21, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (7) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Brain research shows two parents may be better than one

A team of researchers at the University of Calgary's Hotchkiss Brain Institute (HBI) have discovered that adult brain cell production might be determined, in part, by the early parental environment. The study suggests that ...

Medical research created May 01, 2013 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (7) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Ketamine shows significant therapeutic benefit in people with treatment-resistant depression

Patients with treatment-resistant major depression saw dramatic improvement in their illness after treatment with ketamine, an anesthetic, according to the largest ketamine clinical trial to-date led by researchers from the ...

Psychology & Psychiatry created May 19, 2013 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (7) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Do salamanders hold the solution to regeneration?

Salamanders' immune systems are key to their remarkable ability to regrow limbs, and could also underpin their ability to regenerate spinal cords, brain tissue and even parts of their hearts, scientists have ...

Medical research created May 20, 2013 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (7) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Cell (biology)

The cell is the structural and functional unit of all known living organisms. It is the smallest unit of an organism that is classified as living, and is often called the building block of life. Some organisms, such as most bacteria, are unicellular (consist of a single cell). Other organisms, such as humans, are multicellular. (Humans have an estimated 100 trillion or 1014 cells; a typical cell size is 10 µm; a typical cell mass is 1 nanogram.) The largest known cell is an unfertilized ostrich egg cell.

In 1835 before the final cell theory was developed, a Czech Jan Evangelista Purkyně observed small "granules" while looking at the plant tissue through a microscope. The cell theory, first developed in 1839 by Matthias Jakob Schleiden and Theodor Schwann, states that all organisms are composed of one or more cells. All cells come from preexisting cells. Vital functions of an organism occur within cells, and all cells contain the hereditary information necessary for regulating cell functions and for transmitting information to the next generation of cells.

The word cell comes from the Latin cellula, meaning, a small room. The descriptive name for the smallest living biological structure was chosen by Robert Hooke in a book he published in 1665 when he compared the cork cells he saw through his microscope to the small rooms monks lived in.

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.