Human Embryos’ Muscles Still Have 250-Million-Year-Old Evolutionary Remnants
A team of evolutionary biologists, led by Dr. Rui Diogo at Howard University, USA, and writing in the journal Development, have demonstrated that numerous atavistic…
Developmental Biology
Incredible Imaging Shows How Neural Circuits Form in a Developing Embryo [Video]
Cells that eventually become neurons (red, orange, and yellow spheres) migrate during embryonic development. The migrating baby neurons that build the spinal cord are color-coded…
Scientists Find New Trigger for Onset of Colon Cancer
Collaborative research has discovered a new function of a colon cancer gene that puts the brakes on several colon cancer activators. This finding may lead…
Biologists Give New Life to Museum Plant Collections
Using a hitchhiking weed, scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tübingen reveal for the first time the mutation rate of a…
Biologists Design Synthetic Molecules to Help Boost the Immune System
Yale researchers have developed a set of synthetic molecules that may help boost the strength of a key, virus-fighting protein. The protein, RIG-I, is an…
New Comprehensive Map of How Butterflies Are Related to Each Other
For hundreds of years, butterfly collecting has often inspired a special kind of fanaticism, spurring lengthy expeditions, sparking rivalries and prompting some collectors to risk…
New Research Shows World’s Most Venomous Spiders Are Cousins
Two groups of highly venomous spiders might be seeing more of each other at family reunions. A new study led by San Diego State University…
Yale Researchers Track How Cells Repair Rips in DNA
All DNA is sealed within the cell’s nuclear membrane, which protects it from molecular marauders. But what happens when that protective envelope rips? Yale researchers…
Study Shows Selenium Protects Interneurons in the Brain
Exactly 200 years ago, the Swedish scientist Jöns Jacob Berzelius discovered the trace element selenium, which he named after the goddess of the moon, Selene….
Genetic Variability Supports Plant Survival During Droughts
In the first study to predict whether different populations of the same plant species can adapt to climate change, scientists from the Max Planck Institute…
High Glucose Levels During Pregnancy Affects the Baby’s Heart
New research from UCLA details how diabetes in pregnancy affects baby’s heart, revealing that high levels of glucose keep cardiac cells from maturing normally. Researchers…
New Insight on CLOCK Gene May Hold Answers to Human Brain Evolution
Scientists have long sought to unravel the molecular mysteries that make the human brain special: What processes drove its evolution through the millennia? Which genes…
Researchers Identify a Reversible “Master Switch” for Developmental Genes
A team of researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital has identified a reversible “master switch” on most developmental genes. The team unearthed this biological insight…
New Research Shows Cellular Clean-Up Can Also Sweep Away Forms of Cancer
Two new research papers from Yale University reinforce the benefits of a novel therapy that hijacks the cell’s own protein degradation machinery to destroy cancer…
Microscopic Video Reveals How Platelets Naturally Form Unobtrusive Clots
The first microscopic video of how a blood clot contracts at individual platelets provides biologists with a new look at a natural process of blood…
New Study Improves Our Understanding of Intercellular Communication
New research reveals how cells can pack and release active ephrins and Eph receptors through extracellular vesicles, improving our understanding of intercellular communication and paving…
New Research Shows Neanderthals Were Born with Wide Bodies and Robust Bones
Scientists investigated whether the differences in physique between Neanderthals and modern humans are genetic or caused by differences in lifestyle, finding that Neanderthals’ wide bodies…
PROTACs: A New Type of Drug That Can Target All Disease-Causing Proteins
A newly published study from Yale University details the discovery of a new type of drug, called Proteolysis Targeting Chimeras (PROTACs), which can target all…