Category Archives: Cell Biology

Mitochondria, Efficient Energy Production with Dangerous Side Effects?

Scientists from Harvard Teaching Medical Hospital have discovered that Mitochondria respond to trauma by creating patient inflammation and a response not unlike bacterial infection. Best known as the energy producing powerhouses of the cell (being home of the Citric Acid Cycle and oxidative phosphorylation), Mitochondria have long been recognized as ancient symbiots – not originally [...]
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Nature’s Exciting Expectations for the New Year

It seems that Nature magazine has high hopes (and don’t we all) for research progress in 2010. Among goals such as glimpsing the origins of the universe and other Earth-like planets, the biological topics expected to make big impacts are: Stopping/preventing species loss globally Synthetic genome from pioneers such as Craig Venter A surge in the number of [...]
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More Proof That Smoking Leads to Small-Cell Lung Cancer

In a Nature article published earlier this week, UK and US researchers have provided more proof that smoking has a direct effect on the development of small-cell lung cancer. This study describes 22,910 somatic mutations characterized by massively parallel sequencing technology (including 134 in highly important exon coding regions) in the small-cell lung cancer cell [...]
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RNA Interference Technology Will Improve Pharmaceutical Production

RNA interference, or RNAi, has become a novel and useful tool for silencing gene expression in both cells and organisms as well as in developing therapies for diseases. A new study out of Taiwan has recently been published outlining how RNAi technology can be used to vastly increase the quantity and quality of recombinant protein [...]
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Visualize the Unbelievably Small Scale of the Cell (and other Biological Structures)

Single cells are small. Really, REALLY small. When you read that a suspended cell is approximately 10-15 microns in diameter it all seems fine and well; you’ll write it down or take note of it, then move along. However, if you stop to think about how small 10-15 microns is, it begins to baffle your [...]
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First Synthetic Cellulosome In Yeast Created

ScienceDaily (Nov. 2, 2009) — A team of researchers led by University of California, Riverside (UCR) Professor of Chemical Engineering Wilfred Chen has constructed for the first time a synthetic cellulosome in yeast, which is much more ethanol-tolerant than the bacteria in which these structures are normally found. Share/Save
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New Fluorescence Microscopy Techniques Directly Image Drug Delivery

X Sunney Wei and others at Harvard University recently demonstrated a new technique for stimulated emission microscopy that allows high resolution imaging of generally non-fluorescent chromophores (such as drugs). This imaging technique relies on pumped laser sources and new techniques for obtaining the fluorescent emission streams. Use of this sort of microscopy could lead to [...]
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BioImage of the Week #2

The BioImage for this week comes to us from GPMatthews’ personal website. The site contains a large collection of fascinating images and articles, particularly on the pages that contain images of diatoms. These unicellular organisms are like biology’s snowflakes and often offer some of the most interesting and complex patterns that can be visualized under [...]
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Great Video Depicting Transcription and Translation

This video, part of a PBS production titled DNA: The Secret of Life, depicts the process of transcription and translation, or in other terms, making mRNA from DNA and proteins from mRNA. The video shows the biologically correct molecules, which sets it apart from most other videos depicting the same process and gives it a [...]
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BioImage of the Week #1

The image above is featured from Cornell University’s Life Sciences Core Laboratories Center. It is a gorgeous image of a bovine pulmonary artery endothelial cells taken with laser scanning confocal microscopy techniques. The cell is stained with a three dye system showing: Tubulin: BODIPY FL-labelled tubulin antibody Actin: Texas Red-X phalloidin Nucleus/Chromosomes: Texas Red-X phalloidin This gorgeous image illustrates [...]
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