Guest:
From the lab of Michel Sadelain, Dr. Maria Themeli talks to us about her work using stem cells to create killer T cells to seek and destroy cancer cells.
Resources and Links
Fat Isn’t All Bad: Skin Adipocytes Help Protect Against Infections – Researchers report the surprising discovery that fat cells below the skin known as adipocytes help protect us from bacteria.
Researchers Target the Cell’s ‘Biological Clock’ in Promising New Therapy to Kill Cancer Cells, Shrink Tumor Growth – This article tells about the cell biologists at UT Southwestern Medical Center that have targeted telomeres with a small molecule called 6-thiodG that takes advantage of the cell’s “biological clock” to kill cancer cells and shrink tumor growth.
With Cancer, ‘Bad Luck’ of Random Mutations Is Largely to Blame – Scientists have created a statistical model that measures the proportion of cancer incidence, and have found that it’s caused mainly by random mutations when stem cells divide.
Macrophages Contribute to the Cyclic Activation of Adult Hair Follicle Stem Cells – Skin resident macrophages surround and signal to resting hair follicle stem cells, regulate their entry into a new phase of hair follicle growth.
Meth Users Face Higher Risk for Parkinson’s Disease – This article reveals that people who use methamphetamine have a greatly increased risk of developing Parkinson’s disease and that women who took the drug had higher odds of the disease than men.
Molecular Mechanism Behind Health Benefits of Dietary Restriction Identified – Findings from researchers suggest that hydrogen sulfide is one of the key molecules responsible for the benefits of dietary restriction or calorie restriction such as slowing aging and extending lifespan.
Decoding Fat Cells: Discovery May Explain Why We Gain Weight – Researchers discovered that a protein, Thy1, has a fundamental role in controlling whether a primitive cell deci