A Potential New Therapeutic Approach for Curing Neurodegenerative Diseases

Reactivating Damaged Motor Neurons Using Magnetic Fields

14-Jun-2023 - Motor neurons in healthy individuals send signals to the skeletal muscles. ALS, however, is currently an incurable, neurodegenerative disease in which motor neurons are severely damaged and can therefore no longer transmit these signals. An interdisciplinary team at HZDR has proven in cell ...

Cytoskeleton acts as cells’ bouncer for bacteria

Researchers have discovered a previously unknown function of septins in defending cells against dangerous hospital pathogens

24-Oct-2022 - Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P.a.) are resistant to most antibiotics and cause life-threatening infections of wounds or the lungs. The P.a. bacteria species has an entire arsenal of strategies for evading the immune system and infecting tissue. Researchers working with Prof. Dr. Winfried Römer and Dr. ...

Cool Microscopy: Making the invisible visible

Ultrarapid cooling enables the observation of molecular patterns of life

15-Dec-2021 - Fluorescence light microscopy has the unique ability to observe cellular processes over a scale that bridges four orders of magnitude. Yet, its application to living cells is fundamentally limited by the very rapid and unceasing movement of molecules and the light-induced destruction of ...

Super-Resolution RNA Imaging in Live Cells

Innovative method provides new insight into molecular processes involving RNA

02-Mar-2021 - Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is key to various fundamental biological processes. It transfers genetic information, translates it into proteins or supports gene regulation. To achieve a more detailed understanding of the precise functions it performs, researchers based at Heidelberg University and at ...

Superresolution live-cell imaging provides unexpected insights into the dynamic structure of mitochondria

20-Feb-2020 - As power plants and energy stores, mitochondria are essential components of almost all cells in plants, fungi and animals. Until now, it has been assumed that these functions underlie a static structure of mitochondrial membranes. Researchers at the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) and ...

It's not an antibody, it's a frankenbody: A new tool for live-cell imaging

Antibody-based probe works in living systems and targets the classic HA tag

05-Jul-2019 - Antibodies are the biomolecules our immune systems deploy to find, tag and destroy invading pathogens. They work by binding to specific targets, called epitopes, on the surfaces of antigens - like locks to keys. For many decades, scientists have cleverly exploited this selective tagging mechanism ...

A new molecular player involved in T cell activation

13-Dec-2018 - When bacteria or viruses enter the body, proteins on their surfaces are recognized and processed to activate T cells, white blood cells with critical roles in fighting infections. During T-cell activation, a molecular complex known as the microtubule-organizing center (MTOC) moves to a central ...

University of Illinois announces new partnership with ZEISS labs@location program

30-Mar-2017 - A new agreement between the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology (IGB) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and ZEISS has named the Core Facilities at IGB as an official ZEISS labs@location Partner. The model facility will allow researchers from around the U.S. to test-drive ...

Novel label-free microscopy enables dynamic, high-resolution imaging of cell interactions

09-Dec-2016 - Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have invented a novel live-cell imaging method that could someday help biologists better understand how stem cells transform into specialized cells and how diseases like cancer spread. The Photonic Crystal Enhanced Microscope (PCEM) ...

New particle can track chemo

18-Jan-2016 - Tracking the path of chemotherapy drugs in real time and at a cellular level could revolutionize cancer care and help doctors sort out why two patients might respond differently to the same treatment. Researchers at The Ohio State University have found a way to light up a common cancer drug so ...