A new theoretical model helps explain how epigenetic memories, encoded in chemical modifications of chromatin, are passed from generation to generation. Within each cell's nucleus, researchers suggest ...

When killer T cells of our immune system divide, they normally undergo asymmetric cell division (ACD): Each daughter cell ...

There is variability in when and how cells divide during the development of embryos. While researchers traditionally believed this variability was an obstacle that needed to be regulated, a group now ...

The human genome is no longer just a sequence to be read. It’s a dynamic structure that twists, folds, and reshapes itself in ...

The CRISPR gene editing technique has had a dramatic influence on biomedical research, and has even been applied to a few humans to treat disease. Since its invention, scientists have improved, ...

MIT experiments have revealed the existence of “microcompartments,” shown in yellow, within the 3D structure of the genome. These compartments are formed by tiny loops that may play a role in gene ...

An organism grows and repairs its body using a form of cell division known as mitosis. To divide, a cell must replicate the chromosomes, which carry the DNA (the instructions needed to build the body) ...

Labs around the world are trying to turn cells into autobiographers, tracking their own development from embryos to adults. By Carl Zimmer Shortly after conception, a fertilized egg divides, becoming ...

Imagine if our bodies could grow new organs throughout our entire lives. Plants do this constantly, thanks to tiny, powerful ...

David Pellman (left) is a professor at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School (both MA, USA), who also has affiliations with Howard Hughes Medical Institute (MD, USA) and the ...

Researcher are now able to rebuild the switch that remodel the cytoskeleton. Images of an anaphase cytoskeleton in a dividing cell (left) and when rebuilt in vitro (right). PRC1 (green) crosslinks ...

All cancers begin in cells. Our bodies are made up of more than a hundred million million (100,000,000,000,000) cells. Cancer starts with changes in one cell or a small group of cells. Usually, we ...