cell biology
LabBook July 6, 2012
Welcome to LabBook, our weekly roundup of University of Chicago Medicine & Biological Sciences research news from around campus and the world wide web. Each Friday, LabBook will recap the week on the blog, link to news stories about our faculty and studies, and briefly summarize a handful of recent publications by our researchers. THIS […]
LabBook June 1, 2012
Welcome to LabBook, our new weekly roundup of University of Chicago Medicine & Biological Sciences research news from around campus and the world wide web. Each Friday, LabBook will recap the week on the blog, link to news stories about our faculty and studies, and briefly summarize a handful of recent publications by our researchers. […]
From Beehives to Prostate Cancer Treatment
by Rob Mitchum A common feature of pharmacies and organic grocery stores is the aisle of natural remedies, featuring bottle upon bottle of herbs, extracts, and oils that promise a wide range of medical benefits. For legal reasons, the health claims made by these products are often fuzzy, boasting of vague antioxidant or anti-inflammatory activity. […]
Brucella and the Fake Self-Destruct
By Rob Mitchum Brucella abortus is a particularly pesky pathogen. Frequently infecting cattle in many countries around the world, the bacterium causes the most common zoonotic infection, usually passing from animal to humans through ingestion of unpasteurized dairy products. While the infection, known as brucellosis or undulant fever, is rarely deadly, it can cause assorted […]
Light-Guided Biology #2: Infared Excitement
The rise of optogenetics — where flashes of light can manipulate brain activity and behavior — have excited scientists looking for more precise ways of manipulating cells and their components in the laboratory and the clinic. Two papers published this month by University of Chicago laboratories explore new methods with great scientific potential of controlling […]
Light-Guided Biology #1: TULIP Mania
The rise of optogenetics — where flashes of light can manipulate brain activity and rat behavior — have excited scientists looking for more precise ways of manipulating cells and their components in the laboratory and the clinic. Two papers published this month by University of Chicago laboratories explore new methods with great scientific potential of […]
Alan Turing’s Underrated Biology
By Rob Mitchum Alan Turing is best known as the father of the modern computer, a skillful World War II codebreaker, and a pioneer in the study of artificial intelligence. But in the last years before Turing’s death at age 41, he aimed his genius at a different target: the then-stalled field of developmental biology. […]
The Risky Value of Imperfection
By Rob Mitchum Cells, like people, are not perfect. If a cell’s primary responsibility is to produce proteins, then it makes a remarkable amount of mistakes in that job, with some studies estimating that an error appears in as many as 1 out of every 5 proteins. Defective proteins can be a serious problem — […]
Mitochondria and Cancer: The Trigger Becomes the Treatment
Once considered the cause of cancer, a tiny organelle known as the “powerhouse of the cell” may soon spawn a new treatment. In 1955, Otto Warburg, recipient of the 1931 Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology, attributed cancer to damage to the mitochondria, tiny structures within each cell that are involved in energy production, the […]
