Science & Technology - Jan 19, 2010 13:57 - 3 Comments

Maggot to fruit fly: Clues to cancer growth

U. ROCHESTER—Scientists trying to understand how cancer cells invade healthy tissue have used the fruit fly’s metamorphosis as a guide to identify a key molecular signal that may be involved in both processes. (more…)

Health & Medicine - Jan 14, 2010 17:00 - 2 Comments

Picking out a tumor’s cancer causers

YALE—Researchers have demonstrated for the first time how distinct groups of cells from the same tumor are capable of forming tumors. (more…)

Health & Medicine - Dec 21, 2009 14:24 - 0 Comments

Remodel job may curb cancer cells

TEXAS A&M (US)—It may be possible to slow or even stop malignant cancer cells from spreading by altering their architecture, new research suggests. (more…)

Health & Medicine - Dec 10, 2009 12:08 - 0 Comments

Think you know that cell? Think again

BROWN (US)—Cells are not static. They can transform themselves over time—but change can have dangerous implications. Benign cells, for example, can suddenly change into cancerous ones. (more…)

Science & Technology - Nov 9, 2009 13:54 - 0 Comments

Keeps whites white and living cells on time

USC (US)—If a circadian rhythm is like an orchestra—the united expression of the rhythms of millions of cells—hydrogen peroxide may serve as the conductor, or at least as the baton. (more…)

Science & Technology - Oct 26, 2009 15:12 - 0 Comments

Radiation’s no match for bulletproof bacterium

CORNELL—Listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as “the world’s toughest bacterium,” Deinococcus radiodurans can withstand harsh conditions, lack of nutrients, and a thousand times more radiation than a human being. Now researchers think they’ve identified the ace up its sleeve. (more…)

Science & Technology - Oct 22, 2009 17:08 - 0 Comments

Patchy particles show promise for drug delivery

U. PENN (US)—A team of physicists, chemists, and engineers has demonstrated a novel method for the controlled formation of patchy particles, using charged, self-assembling molecules. The particles may one day serve as drug-delivery vehicles and perhaps be used in small batteries that store and release charge. (more…)

Science & Technology - Sep 1, 2009 6:00 - 2 Comments

Tiny tweezers snag living cells

While optical tweezers are large and expensive, acoustic tweezers are smaller than a dime, small enough to fabricate on a chip using standard chip manufacturing techniques. They can also manipulate live cells without damaging or killing them. Above, the interdigital transducers (yellow) emit surface acoustic waves that push particles into position. (Credit: Tony Jun Huang and Jinjie Shi/Penn State)

Science & Technology - Aug 19, 2009 15:23 - 0 Comments

See the writing on the cells

University of Michigan researchers demonstrate their technique for sketching experiments on a canvas of live cells by writing “UMICH” with a fluorescent water-based solution on cells growing in another water-based medium. (Courtesy: Hossein Tavana)

Health & Medicine - Jul 28, 2009 10:29 - 0 Comments

Misery loves company— just ask a retrovirus

Retroviruses (red) form in infected cell and are transmitted to neighboring cell. Green proteins bind the cells. “Our hope is that somewhere down the road we will have a completely new antiviral strategy based on targeting cell-to-cell transmission,” says lead researcher Walther Mothes. (Courtesy: Yale University)

Health & Medicine - Jul 20, 2009 11:32 - 0 Comments

Nanoalerts from healthy cells signal cancer

Vadim Backman, the study’s senior author, says nanoscale changes in both cancer cells and normal cells far away from the tumor site “are general phenomena in carcinogenesis and occur early in the process.”

Health & Medicine - Jul 13, 2009 11:56 - 1 Comment

Nanocapusles may deliver drugs without side effects

This image shows a microtube surface coated with nanocapsules containing a small-interfering RNA (which glows red under a fluorescent microscope). The capsules were targeted to specific circulating cells. (Credit: Zhong Huang/Cornell University)

Science & Technology - Jun 24, 2009 13:23 - 0 Comments

Micro-tool taps forces that shape living tissue

Scientists have created a micro-tool to gauge how minute mechanical forces affect cellular behavior in a 3-dimensional, in vivo-like environment that mimics how tissue actually forms in a living organism. Immunofluorescent sections of cells are visible above, including cell nuclei labeled in blue. (Credit: Wesley R Legant)

Health & Medicine - Jun 11, 2009 12:12 - 0 Comments

Computer model predicts cancer growth

Science & Technology - Apr 3, 2009 8:51 - 0 Comments

Distinguishing single cells with nothing but light

U. ROCHESTER (US)—By combining two optical techniques, scientists have developed a noninvasive method for observing changes in human cells—like T cells or cancer cells—using only light. (more…)

Science & Technology - Mar 6, 2009 18:50 - 0 Comments

World’s smallest periscopes offer 3D views

VANDERBILT (US)—A periscope no wider than a human hair is yielding 3D images at the microscopic level and offering scientists an unprecedented look at cells and very small organisms from multiple vantage points—top, bottom, and all sides—like the single grain of pollen from a sunflower pictured here.