Patients with Fanconi anemia have an elevated risk for squamous cell carcinoma, a highly aggressive head-and-neck cancer. New findings pinpoint the mechanisms linking the two conditions, and also shed new light on how smoking or drinking may elevate anyone’s cancer risk.
The findings suggest that many of the mutations in cancer may simply be setting in stone a path already forged by the tumor stem cell’s aberrant dialogue with its surroundings.
When an actin filament bends during cell movement, older actin deforms differently than newer actin, allowing regulatory proteins to tell the two states apart.
Because three percent of the world population possesses these gene variants, the findings may have implications for hundreds of millions of individuals around the world.
Through questioning their assumptions about how mosquitoes sense and interpret odors, scientists may have discovered why efforts to throw the vectors of dengue and Zika off the human scent have not succeeded.
A new study suggests that stem cells are able to integrate cues from their surroundings and coordinate their behavior across tissue through networks of vasculature in their close vicinity.
Researchers have long disagreed over whether 𝛄𝛅T cells in the gut promote or discourage tumor growth, but new evidence suggests they have the capacity to do both.
The research demonstrates the distributed nature of memory processing in the brain, and reveals a dedicated pathway for memory recall, which is less understood than memory formation.
The booster appears to galvanize memory B cells into producing potent and versatile antibodies that neutralize both the original virus and its many variants.
In developing bird skin, immature cells move around and form intricate patterns. Scientists are zeroing in on the mechanical forces guiding the process.
The study highlights genes that, when silenced, render Mycobacterium tuberculosis vulnerable to antibiotics, and identifies existing drugs that may be effective against one prominent strain.
Linker histone H1 appears capable of distinguishing between single-stranded and double-stranded DNA, suggesting that its role in maintaining our genomes extends far beyond that of keeping chromosomes compact.
The compound attacks MRSA, C. diff, and several other deadly pathogens. Its discovery demonstrates the power of combining computational biology, genetic sequencing, and synthetic chemistry to study bacterial evolution.
A mutated gene may explain why some Staphylococcus aureus infections turn lethal, a finding with significant implications for people living with 5p- syndrome.
Unlike conventional antiretroviral drugs, treatment with broadly neutralizing antibodies does not rely on vigilant daily dosing and could potentially reduce the body’s reservoir of latent viruses.
A new study reveals how the drug fidaxomicin selectively targets a dangerous pathogen without causing harm to beneficial bacteria. The findings could inform the development of new narrow-spectrum antibiotics for treating other types of infection.
In studying how bacteria respond to viral infection, scientists are learning that their defense strategies cooperate in ways reminiscent of the elaborate immune systems of animals.
FMRP, a protein whose loss causes intellectual disability, may regulate a neuron's synaptic response by establishing a feedback loop between the cell's nucleus and its faraway dendrites.
Protein folding diseases, from Alzheimer's to Gaucher's, may one day be treated by a unique class of protein corrector molecules that are already helping manage cystic fibrosis.
The findings, which may have implications for a wide range of human diseases, suggest that nuclear pore complexes vary in structure and function even within a single nucleus.
Increasingly, hospitalized patients contract infections that evade current antibiotics including colistin, long used as a last treatment option. The discovery of a new colistin variant might make it possible to outmaneuver these pathogens.
