UCSF

Proteins are the workhorses of the cell, but nature sometimes has room for improvement. Now a team from the Institute for Protein Design and the University of California San Francisco has created a new artificial protein that acts like a switch, turning regular cells into “smart cells.”

Biologists often concern themselves with preserving cells. However, it is also advantageous to learn how to kill them, without having their contents exploding into neighboring tissue. That's exactly what bioengineers have done by linking a "suicide" enzyme with a light-sensitive molecule.

A new hope for MS treatment might be on the way. This week, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a new drug, called ocrelizumab, which fights MS by targeting the body’s B cells and is the first to have an effect on the more severe form of the disease.

Until now, blood cell production was ascribed solely to bone marrow, but studies on mice have found that the majority of the body’s platelets are produced in the lungs, as is a backup reservoir of blood stem cells that can step in when those in the bone marrow run dry.

Treatments for symptoms of spinal cord injuries may be a step closer, as researchers at UCSF have transplanted human neurons into mice with these injuries, and found that over time they made new connections in the spine, reducing chronic pain and helping the mice regain some bladder control.

It sounds like sci-fi: scientists create a weapon that neutralizes a bad invading entity and maybe even turns it into a force for good. That's a bit like what researchers have just done. Only the invaders are disease-causing liver cells and the "weapon" involves a bit more than special effects.​​

By transplanting a specific type of cell into the brain, UCSF researchers have been able to cure epilepsy in adult mice.