Month: February 2017

Francisco Mojica was not the first to see CRISPR, but he was probably the first to be smitten by it. He remembers the day in 1992 when he got his first glimpse of the microbial immune system that would launch a biotechnology revolution. He was reviewing genome-sequence data from the salt-loving microbe Haloferax mediterranei and …

Five Big Mysteries about CRISPR’s Origins Read More »

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While distinct stages of natural killer (NK) cell development have been defined, the molecular interactions that shape human NK cell maturation are poorly understood. Here we define intercellular interactions between developing NK cells and stromal cells which, through contact-dependent mechanisms, promote the generation of mature, functional human NK cells from CD34+ precursors. We show that …

Human NK Cell Development Requires CD56-mediated Motility and Formation of the Developmental Synapse Read More »

Long distance transport in plants occurs in sieve tubes of the phloem. The pressure flow hypothesis introduced by Ernst Münch in 1930 describes a mechanism of osmotically generated pressure differentials that are supposed to drive the movement of sugars and other solutes in the phloem, but this hypothesis has long faced major challenges. The key …

Testing the Münch Hypothesis of Long Distance Phloem Transport in Plants Read More »

This lecture describes the famous experiments of Ernst Abbe which showed how diffraction of light by a specimen (and interference with the illuminating light) gives rise to an image and how collection of diffracted light defines the resolution of the microscope. These concepts are demonstrated by using a diffraction grating as a specimen and visualizing …

Video Talk by Kurt Thorn: The Abbe Diffraction Experiment Read More »

Hemidesmosomes have been extensively studied by immunofluorescence microscopy, but due to its limited resolution, their precise organization remained poorly understood. We studied hemidesmosome organization in cultured keratinocytes by 2- and 3-color super-resolution microscopy. We observed that in the cell periphery, nascent hemidesmosomes are associated with individual keratin filaments and that β4 is distributed along rather …

The Molecular Architecture of Hemidesmosomes as Revealed by Super-Resolution Microscopy Read More »

Microscopes are demanding when it comes to the working posture. Observing samples requires full concentration and looking through the eyepieces usually involves inclining the head and back, so that one’s eyes, neck, shoulders are properly positioned. This can, in some cases, cause the operator to suffer from strain. Once a microscope user feels physical discomfort, …

How to Turn Microscope Workplaces Ergonomic Read More »

Chronic stress induces signalling from the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and drives cancer progression, although the pathways of tumour cell dissemination are unclear. Here we show that chronic stress restructures lymphatic networks within and around tumours to provide pathways for tumour cell escape. We show that VEGFC derived from tumour cells is required for stress …

Chronic Stress in Mice Remodels Lymph Vasculature to Promote Tumour Cell Dissemination Read More »

The cytoskeleton is an early attribute of cellular life, and its main components are composed of conserved proteins. The actin cytoskeleton has a direct impact on the control of cell size in animal cells, but its mechanistic contribution to cellular growth in plants remains largely elusive. Here, we reveal a role of actin in regulating …

Actin-Dependent Vacuolar Occupancy of the Cell Determines Auxin-Induced Growth Repression Read More »