Immunology

Bacteria and immune cells forge a productive partnership

To prevent infection, the intestinal wall relies on the support of its own 'home-grown' army of commensal bacteria. These gut microbiota collaborate with and are in turn regulated by their host's immune system via a variety ...

Immunology

Faulty cytoskeleton impairs immune cells

In order to move, a body needs a strong scaffold. This is not only true on a macroscopic level, where animals rely on skeletons to support their muscles. It is also true on a cellular level: The cytoskeleton, composed of ...

Neuroscience

New mouse model of tau propagation

Accumulation of assembled tau protein in the central nervous system is characteristic of Alzheimer's disease and several other neurodegenerative diseases, called tauopathies. Recent studies have revealed that propagation ...

Medical research

Genetic disease linked to protein build-up

Mutations of the gene Lmna previously thought to be directly responsible for a group of laminopathies—serious developmental conditions including premature aging and a form of muscular dystrophy—in fact cause them by allowing ...

Medical research

Introducing titin, the protein that rules our hearts

Although scientists have long speculated that a protein named titin measures thick filaments—the proteins that make muscles contract—no one has been able to provide evidence to support their theories.

Oncology & Cancer

p53 cuts off invading cancer cells

The tumor suppressor p53 does all it can to prevent oncogenes from transforming normal cells into tumor cells by killing defective cells or causing them to become inactive. Sometimes oncogenes manage to initiate tumor development ...

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