Technology developed at HIRI records ribonucleic acids in individual living cells.

When cells exchange metabolic products with other cells, they live longer. This new finding comes from a research team at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, which made the discovery in a study using yeast cells. The fact that these exchanges directly impact cell lifespans could play a significant role in future research into human aging processes and age-related diseases. The study appears in the latest issue of Cell*.

• Study by a team of researchers from Freiburg and Kyoto investigates formation of beta-barrel membrane proteins that make up the pores
• Similarities to wine barrel structure – protein subunits Sam50 and Sam37 play central roles
• Substances are exchanged between mitochondria and the cell water through the barrel pores

How can you trace a single diseased cell in an intact brain or a human heart? The search resembles looking for a needle in a haystack. The teams of Ali Ertürk at Helmholtz Munich and LMU Munich and Matthias Mann at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried near Munich have now developed a new technology named DISCO-MS that solves the problem. DISCO-MS uses robotics technology to obtain proteomics data from ‘sick’ cells precisely identified early in the disease.

Body cells burn off fat reserves when nutrient supply from food ceases. A team led by Professor Volker Haucke and Dr. Wonyul Jang from the Leibniz-Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pharmakologie (FMP) has now discovered a previously unknown mechanism for how this “starvation response” is triggered, and what can inhibit it. The results have been published in the renowned international journal Science.

Prior to allogeneic stem cell transplantation for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), complete remission is currently still considered the gold standard of care. A Germany-wide clinical trial now shows for the first time that this approach does not benefit disease-free survival or overall survival. An alternative approach of sequential conditioning followed by immediate stem cell transplantation may reduce side effects and shorten hospital stays.

In its race to advance assisted reproduction and stem cell associated technologies to save the northern white rhinoceros from extinction, the BioRescue consortium announces a major breakthrough: the creation of primordial germ cell-like cells (PGCLSs) from induced pluripotent stem cells of the northern white rhino Nabire. This milestone was led by specialists from Osaka University, Japan, and has never been achieved in large mammals before. Now there is one last step to master for the production of artificial rhino gametes (eggs and sperm) from preserved tissue.

Biology: Publication in Current Biology

Modern eukaryotic cells contain numerous so-called organelles, which once used to be independent bacteria. In order to understand how these bacteria were integrated into the cells in the course of evolution and how they are controlled, a research team from the Institute of Microbial Cell Biology at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) has examined the single-celled flagellate Angomonas deanei, which contains a bacterium that was taken up relatively recently. In the journal Current Biology, the biologists now describe how certain proteins in the flagellate control the cell division process of the bacterium, among other things.

Researchers have identified a new function of a well-known enzyme: the signal peptidase complex is responsible for the quality control of membrane proteins. The discovery of this new function for a key enzyme in cell biology has been published in ‘Science’ and could lead to new therapeutic approaches for Alzheimer’s and other protein-misfolding diseases.

Fertilization of an egg by sperm is the beginning of new life. The maternal and paternal genetic information, that collectively store the body plan of the living being, are combined after fertilization. However, the DNA is still in an inactive state in the cell nucleus at this early stage of life. While the first division of the fertilized egg cell functions with the help of maternal factors stored in the egg, for further development of an embryo the synthesis of new embryonic products is necessary, which requires access to the DNA of the embryo. As shown in Science, Kikuë Tachibana and her team at the MPI of Biochemistry have now shown that pioneer factor Nr5a2 awakens the embryonic DNA.

Increased cell proliferation is a key feature of diseases such as cancer. A research team from the University of Würzburg and two Leibniz Institutes has now succeeded in indirectly influencing this process.

Researchers from Dresden, together with Danish and Finnish colleagues, identify a gene that enables beta cells to communicate with each other, helping the pancreas to respond to glucose by insulin secretion.

How do single cells communicate in a tissue? How can these interactions be modeled, while retaining information of spatial context? Researchers around Fabian Theis from Helmholtz Munich Computational Health Center and Technical University of Munich (TUM) have generated a new method to represent cell communication: the node-centric expression models (NCEM). These models are based on graph neural networks and helps to uncover the effects of cell tissue niche composition on gene expression without loss of spatial information.

Scientists have identified the loss of the protein HIRA (histone cell cycle regulator) as a possible driving factor in a highly metastatic form of kidney cancer / study in ‘Science Advances’ opens up new perspectives for targeted therapies

Using bacteria of the Bartonella henselae species, researchers from Goethe University, Frankfurt University Hospital, the Paul Ehrlich Federal Institute for Vaccines and Biomedicines in Langen, and the University of Oslo demonstrated for the first time that antibodies can prevent certain surface proteins of bacterial pathogens from entering host cells. The findings are important for the development of new drugs against highly resistant infectious agents.

A research team at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, shows in a new study how leaf beetles could successfully use new and previously indigestible food sources in the course of evolution. The insects acquired enzymes from microorganisms via horizontal gene transfer that enabled them to degrade pectins, solid components of the plant cell wall. Since the degradation products resulting from pectin digestion are not per se crucial for the growth and development of the beetles, the researchers conclude that the beetles disrupt the cell wall to access the protein-rich cytoplasm of plant cells, which they need for their nutrition.

Computer simulations visualize how an essential stem cell protein opens wrapped DNA

A key protein for converting adult stem cells into cells that resemble embryonic stem cells has been visualized in unprecedented detail by an international team of researchers around Hans Schöler and Vlad Cojocaru of the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine in Münster. By combing experiments and computer simulations, the team visualized how the Oct4 protein binds and opens short pieces of DNA while wrapped around nuclear storage proteins (histones), just like in our genome. The results were published in the journal Nucleic Acids Research on September 22.

The phenomenon of regeneration was discovered over 200 years ago in the freshwater polyp Hydra. Until now, however, it was largely unclear how the orderly regeneration of lost tissues or organs is activated after injury. In its investigations of Hydra, an interdisciplinary research team at Heidelberg University was able to show how wound healing signals released upon injury are converted into specific signals of pattern formation and cell differentiation.

Research with stem cells is becoming increasingly important, because stem cells can develop into any body cell – skin cells, nerve cells or organ cells such as liver cells, the so-called hepatocytes. Stem cells can therefore be used, for example, in the therapy of organ damage or as an alternative to animal experiments. However, there are still major differences between hepatocytes obtained from a liver and those obtained from stem cells. Researchers at the Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environments and Human Factors in Dortmund (IfADo) have successfully identified an important reason for this difference, so that the two cell variants can be more similar in the future.

Scientists with a research focus on stem cell transplantation and cell therapy are invited to apply for the 2023 DKMS John Hansen Research Grant starting August 10, 2022. With this grant, the DKMS Stiftung Leben Spenden (Foundation for Giving Life) supports up to four outstanding research projects each year that aim to advance the medical progress and improve the chances of recovery for blood cancer patients. The requirements include a doctoral degree (PhD, MD or equivalent) that was obtained no longer than 10 years ago. The grants are endowed with €240,000 each, which will be paid out over a period of three years. The application deadline is December 2, 2022.

A team of researchers located at Helmholtz Munich reports on a novel function of vitamin K, which is generally known for its importance in blood clotting. The researchers discovered that the fully reduced form of vitamin K acts as an antioxidant efficiently inhibiting ferroptotic cell death. Ferroptosis is a natural form of cell death in which cellular iron plays an important role and which is characterized by the oxidative destruction of cellular membranes. In addition, the team identified FSP1 as the warfarin-insensitive enzyme reducing vitamin K, the identity of which had been postulated but remained unknown for more than half a century.

Researchers from the Gerlich Group at IMBA – Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences – discovered a molecular mechanism that confers special physical properties to chromosomes in dividing human cells to enable their faithful transport to the progeny. The team showed how a chemical modification establishes a sharp surface boundary on chromosomes, thus allowing them to resist perforation by microtubules of the spindle apparatus. The findings are published in the journal Nature.

„Top-fase“ is a simple and universal tool for the targeted transfection of numerous molecule species into cells and cell lines. This new method, developed at the BioQuant Centre of Heidelberg University, enables an accelerated and cost-efficient search for new biopharmaceuticals, the identification of intracellular drug targets, the optimisation of already existing drugs and the establishment of novel cellular assays.

In severe Covid-19 patients, the metabolism produces insufficient amounts of certain energy-rich compounds called ketone bodies. However, these energy carriers are needed by two important cell types in the immune system in order to fight the virus effectively. Perhaps this finding explains why some people fall ill so much more severely than others. A study led by the University of Bonn at least points in this direction. The results have now been published in the journal Nature. They also give hope for new therapies.

When different cell types compete in a confined space, those which remove debris faster have a better chance to dominate their environment. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (MPI-DS) showed in their model that not only a higher net proliferation rate, but also the swift removal of dead cells provides a competitive advantage. They mixed two cell populations only differing in debris removal rate and showed that already after a few generations the population with the higher removal rate starts to dominate the confined space.