Mapping human brain development

With the help of brain organoids, ETH researchers are investigating gene networks that control the development of different brain regions

12-Oct-2022 - Researchers at ETH Zurich are growing human brain-​like tissue from stem cells and are then mapping the cell types that occur in different brain regions and the genes that regulate their development. The human brain is probably the most complex organ in the entire living world and has long been ...

How cells move and don’t get stuck

New insight for developmental biology and potential cancer treatment

22-Jan-2021 - Theoretical physicists from Berlin teamed up with experimental physicists from Munich to determine the precise mechanics involved in cell motility. Cell velocity, or how fast a cell moves, is known to depend on how sticky the surface is beneath it, but the precise mechanisms of this relationship ...

New fuel-delivery route for cells identified

Findings shed light on chronic diseases, aging

10-Jan-2019 - Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified a previously unknown route for cellular fuel delivery, a finding that could shed light on the process of aging and the chronic diseases that often accompany it. With age, cells gradually lose their ability to take ...

Making an eye for you

The underlying mechanisms of 3D tissue formation

27-Nov-2018 - If you want to build an organ, such as for transplant, you need to think in 3D. Using stem cells, scientists for some time have been able to grow parts of organs in the lab, but that is a far cry from constructing an actual, fully-formed, functioning, three-dimensional organ. For students of ...

Creating a family tree for each body cell in real time

Evolving genetic barcodes show origin of cells in vivo

13-Aug-2018 - All humans begin life as a single cell that divides repeatedly to form two, then four, then eight cells, all the way up to the ~26 billion cells that make up a newborn. Tracing how and when those 26 billion cells arise from one zygote is the grand challenge of developmental biology, a field that ...

Genetic screening before embryo transfer fails to improve the chance of a baby

06-Aug-2018 - The genetic screening of fertilised eggs for embryo selection in assisted reproduction makes no difference to live birth rates, according to results from the largest published study of its kind. Results from this multicentre randomised controlled trial, say the authors, confirm the "widely ...

Seeing how cells work as never before

17-Jul-2018 - Yale is adding microscopy that provides an unprecedented view of specimens whose thickness had thwarted close inspection Biological structures exist and function in three dimensions, but the limitations of imaging technology have long meant that scientists could examine only two dimensions in ...

How cells change their shape

Function of protein 'smallish' unraveled

25-Jan-2018 - During the development of an embryo, every single cell needs to know who it is, where it is, and what it has to do. Important is the polarity of the cell: Where is the top, where is the bottom, where are front and back? Only when the cell is polarized in the right way can it change the shape in ...

Bacteria as pacemaker for the intestine

24-Nov-2017 - Spontaneous contractions of the digestive tract play an important role in almost all animals, and ensure healthy bowel functions. From simple invertebrates to humans, there are consistently similar patterns of movement, through which rhythmic contractions of the muscles facilitate the transport ...

Bacteria may help babies' digestive tracts more than suspected, scientists find

09-Nov-2017 - Some of the first living things to greet a newborn baby do a lot more than coo or cuddle. In fact, they may actually help the little one's digestive system prepare for a lifetime of fighting off dangerous germs. But these living things aren't parents, grandparents or siblings - they're helpful ...