Researchers have discovered that metabolic changes affect how blood cells are formed during embryonic development. They found a previously unknown metabolic switch with a key role in how different types of blood cells develop. This means blood cell formation can be directed towards producing natural killer cells in the laboratory to ultimately be used in a new anti-cancer treatment.

Human eggs often contain the wrong number of chromosomes, leading to miscarriages and infertility. A research team led by Melina Schuh at the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Multidisciplinary Sciences has discovered that human eggs are missing an important protein, which acts as a molecular motor. This motor helps to stabilize the machinery that separates the chromosomes during cell division. The researchers’ findings open up new avenues for therapeutic approaches that could reduce chromosome segregation errors in human eggs.

Using data from over 100,000 malignant and non-malignant cells from 15 human brain metastases, researchers have revealed two functional archetypes of metastatic cells across 7 different types of brain tumors, each containing both immune and non-immune cell types. Their findings provide a potential roadmap for metastatic tumor formation that could be used to design therapies to improve the treatment of metastasized patients.

Researchers have developed a new protocol for monitoring acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the most common cancer in children, to inform more effective treatment strategies and detect disease recurrence. The personalized mediator probe PCR (MP PCR) uses multiple genomic cancer cell markers in a single assay and is simpler than current techniques. It improves monitoring clonal tumor evolution to detect a relapse sooner and avoid false negative results.

A research team has investigated in detail how messenger substances signal inflammation during the removal of damaged cells in the body. Using high-resolution microscopy methods, the researchers were able to show that two proteins interact dynamically with each other and thus determine whether a dying cell triggers an inflammatory reaction in the body.

The chloride ion channel ASOR is found in almost all our cells. But apart from its involvement in cell death, not much is known about its physiological role. Two years ago, researchers of the FMP and MDC led by Prof. Thomas Jentsch were able to identify the gene encoding this acid-sensitive ion channel. Now, in collaboration with Prof. Long (New York), they have gained astonishing insight about its structure and activation mechanisms. The findings, now published in Science Advances, are another step on the way to solving the puzzle of ASOR.

Garden soil houses a variety of bacteria and their natural byproducts — including one that may help halt tumor growth. Lankacidins are molecules that can be isolated from Strepomyces rochei, a common bacterium in soil. In addition to antimicrobial properties, a type of lankacidins, called lankacidin C, can inhibit tumor activity in various cancer cell lines, including leukemia, melanoma, ovarian and breast cancers. Lankacidin C offers a potential foundation on which to design anticancer drugs, but its structure is complicated and difficult to manipulate, according to an international research group. The same group recently identified where antitumor activity is housed on the molecule and has now used that information to simplify lankacidin as a potential starting point to engineer treatments.

A protein that masterminds the way DNA is wrapped within chromosomes has a major role in the healthy functioning of blood stem cells, which produce all blood cells in the body, according to a new study.

Scientists have just launched GENIGMA, a videogame that enlists players to solve puzzles while generating real-world scientific data that can detect alterations in genomic sequences and ultimately advance breast cancer research. The game was created to boost worldwide research efforts that depend on cancer cell lines, a critical resource used by scientists to study cancer and test new drugs to treat the disease. One of the limitations of cancer cell lines are a lack of high-resolution genome reference maps, which are necessary to help researchers interpret their scientific results.

Scientists have developed a new tool to harness immune cells from tumors to fight cancer rapidly and effectively.

A new study has illuminated an important process that occurs during cell division and is a likely source of DNA damage under some circumstances, including cancer.

The most dangerous side effect of allogeneic blood stem cell transplantation, graft-versus-host disease (GvHD), has still not been sufficiently researched. The world’s largest blood stem cell donor center DKMS wants to change that – it is the declared goal of the non-profit organization to improve the survival and healing chances of blood cancer patients. In the fight against GvHD, DKMS research teams have now launched two new scientific studies.

Recent discoveries by stem cell scientists may help make cancer treatment more efficient and shorten the time it takes for people to recover from radiation and chemotherapy.

Researchers have developed a computational approach to identify GSH sites with significantly higher potential for the safe insertion of therapeutic genes and their durable expression across many cell types. For two out of 2,000 predicted GSH sites, the team provided an in-depth validation with adoptive T cell therapies and in vivo gene therapies for skin diseases in mind. By engineering the identified GSH sites to carry a reporter gene in T cells, and a therapeutic gene in skin cells, respectively, they demonstrated safe and long-lasting expression of the newly introduced genes.

Steroid estrogens play an important role as embryos develop a sense of smell, new research shows. The study, which examined zebrafish embryos, discovered a type of astrocyte glial cell that is new to science, and have been named estrogen responsive olfactory bulb (EROB) cells.

In a new study of the Zika virus, scientists have discovered a key mechanism used by the virus to evade the antiviral response of the cell it is attacking. This finding contributes to a better understanding of how viruses infect cells, overcome immune barriers and replicate — information that is essential for fighting them.

Researchers report successfully removing the nucleus from a type of ubiquitous cell, then using the genetically engineered cell as a unique cargo-carrier to deliver therapeutics precisely to diseased tissues.

Characterizing the way, manner or pattern of evolution in tumors may be important for clinical forecasting and optimizing cancer treatment. Researchers are systematically examining how spatial structure influences tumor evolution. To do this the group developed a computational model with the flexibility to simulate alternative spatial structures and types of cell dispersal.

The human immune system, that marvel of complexity, subtlety, and sophistication, includes a billion-year-old family of proteins used by bacteria to defend themselves against viruses, scientists have discovered.

Understanding how cells die is key to developing new treatments for many diseases, whether the goal is to make cancer cells die or keep healthy cells alive in the face of other illnesses, such as massive infections or strokes. Two new studies have identified a previously unrecognized pathway of cell death — named lysoptosis — and demonstrate how it could lead to new therapies for cervical cancer.

When an individual suffers from cancer, the process of programmed cell death called apoptosis does not occur normally, permitting abnormal cells to thrive.

In a new study, researchers have identified the presence of a specific connection between a protein and an lncRNA molecule in liver cancer. By increasing the presence of the lncRNA molecule, the fat depots of the tumor cell decrease, which causes the division of tumor cells to cease, and they eventually die. The study contributes to increased knowledge that can add to a better diagnosis and future cancer treatments.

Removing one type of T cell from donor blood used for stem cell grafts could greatly reduce a serious complication called graft-versus-host disease in patients with leukemia, according to a new study.

Researchers have developed a unique nanoparticle to deliver genome editing technology, including CRISPR/Cas9, to endothelial cells, which are cells that line blood vessel walls. This is the first time that vascular endothelial cells could be reached for genome editing, since the usual way to deliver CRISPR/Cas9 — through a virus — does not work for this cell type.

Aggressive and relatively common lymphomas called diffuse large B cell lymphomas (DLBCLs) have a critical metabolic vulnerability that can be exploited to trick these cancers into starving themselves, according to a new study.