Neuroscience

Using pulsed magnetic fields to fight neurodegenerative diseases

In motor neuron diseases of the nervous system, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), commands can no longer be sent to the muscles. This gradually leads to paralysis. Physicist Dr. Thomas Herrmannsdörfer from the ...

Neuroscience

How the brain knows when to take out the trash

The brain has its own housekeeping service, a sophisticated mechanism that cleans up debris that is left over from cellular activity. But scientists have had a hard time figuring out exactly how the brain knows when to initiate ...

Parkinson's & Movement disorders

Function of gene mutations linked to neurological diseases identified

Several gene mutations have been linked to Parkinson's disease, but exactly how and where some of them cause their damage has been unclear. A new Yale study, published in the Journal of Cell Biology, shows that one of the ...

Medical research

A new puzzle piece to control the aging and age-related diseases

A basic discovery of how the cellular functions are connected to control aging is presented in the journal Cell Metabolism. The study shows that an increasingly deteriorating communication between the cells' organelles is ...

Medical research

Peroxisomes—the hybrid organelle

Like the human body itself, cells have structures within them that perform special tasks. These cellular structures are called organelles, and discovering more about organelles is key to unlocking the reasons why certain ...

Oncology & Cancer

Zombie cancer cells eat themselves to live

A University of Colorado Cancer Center study recently published in the journal Cell Reports and presented today at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Conference 2014 shows that the cellular process ...

Medical research

Plant science could aid Alzheimer's research

A finding by an international team of plant biologists could be important in research into Alzheimer's and other age-related diseases.The study is published this week in the prestigious journal Proceedings of the National ...

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Organelle

In cell biology, an organelle ( /ɔrɡəˈnɛl/) is a specialized subunit within a cell that has a specific function, and is usually separately enclosed within its own lipid bilayer.

The name organelle comes from the idea that these structures are to cells what an organ is to the body (hence the name organelle, the suffix -elle being a diminutive). Organelles are identified by microscopy, and can also be purified by cell fractionation. There are many types of organelles, particularly in eukaryotic cells. Prokaryotes were once thought not to have organelles, but some examples have now been identified.

This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA