Cells

By taking their microscopes to the skeletal structures of the human body, scientists have unearthed an entirely new type of bone cell, one they believe may play an important role in the development of osteoporosis and other bone diseases.

Scientists have combined a technique known as direct cell reprogramming with a new type of scaffold to ensure transplanted cells thrive in their new environment, demonstrating the potential of the technique by treating severe muscle loss in mice.

Researchers have shed new light on the murky origins of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, which could eventually lead to new treatments. The team uncovered a mechanism for how toxic tangles of tau proteins leak into healthy brain cells.

A gene known as Myc is linked to cancer growth, but has long been considered “undruggable." Now, researchers at Vanderbilt University have found a way to bypass it and shut down a protein that it interacts with, shrinking tumors in a matter of days.

One of the most promising emerging cancer therapies is CAR T cell immunotherapy, where a patient’s own immune cells are supercharged to fight tumors. Now researchers have found a way to refresh exhausted immune cells and get them back into battle.

Glaucoma can cause vision loss that's currently irreversible. But now scientists have found that removing a membrane in the eye could help transplanted cells migrate into the optic nerve and repair the connections, potentially restoring lost vision.

CAR T cell immunotherapy is a promising cancer treatment that supercharges natural tumor-hunting cells, but it can backfire with potentially deadly results. Now, scientists have engineered off switches for these immune cells.

Exactly how some animals, such as birds, can detect magnetic fields remains a mystery. Now researchers in Japan may have found a crucial piece of the puzzle, making the first direct observations of live, unaltered cells responding to magnetic fields.

Cancer cells are very energy-hungry, which could be a potential weakness. Now, researchers have developed an experimental drug that blocks mitochondrial metabolism, starving cancer cells of energy while leaving healthy cells relatively unscathed.

A form of cancer immunotherapy has been adapted into a new potential treatment for type 1 diabetes. In mouse studies, scientists tweaked immune cells to fight off rogue T cells that damage insulin-producing cells, preventing diabetes from developing.

It’s long been thought that our cells stop dividing as we age as a natural preventative measure against cancer. Now a new study has found intriguing evidence supporting this hypothesis in genomes from several particularly cancer-prone families.

EPFL scientists have demonstrated a new method to make immunotherapy more effective and directed against cancer. The team designed microparticles containing drugs that are only released when T cells physically squeeze them, on contact with cancer.