#cell reports

Hair Today

This strange structure is a developing mouse hair follicle, shown in close-up on the right, embedded in a patch of skin. But it’s not growing on the back of an animal – it’s been created in the lab inside a little ball of stem cells known as an organoid. Scientists can successfully grow organoids from all kinds of tissues, from brain to bowel, but generating the complex multi-layered components of skin and hair has proved tricky. Now researchers have found a way to make skin organoids sprout hairs for the first time. These hairy little balls will be a useful laboratory model for studying hair growth and loss, and could be used for testing drugs that are used on the skin. The next step is to see if the same technique can be used with human stem cells, which could lead to the development of more realistic lab-grown skin for grafts.

Written by Kat Arney

Image from work by Jiyoon Lee and colleagues

Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA

Image originally published under a Creative Commons Licence (BY 4.0)

Published in Cell Reports, January 2018

دراسة صادمة: البلاستيك الطبي يغذي بكتيريا مقاومة للمضادات الحيوية اكتشف العلماء أن بكتيريا المستشفيات سيئة السمعة قادرة على هضم البلاستيك المستخدم في الخيوط الجراحية والدعامات والشبكات. بتحويل البوليمر إلى غذاء، قد تلتصق هذه البكتيريا بالأجهزة بشكل أقوى وتبقى لفترة أطول على أسطح الأجنحة. كشف باحثون من جامعة برونيل في لندن، يعملون على سلالة مشتقة من مريض من بكتيريا الزائفة الزنجارية، أن هذه…

CRISPR gene editing adapted for white blood cells

Now, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) have developed an adapted form of CRISPR-Cas9 to make gene edits in monocytes. CRISPR uses a bacterial protein, Cas9, guided by RNA to make precise edits to the gene of interest. These are usually introduced into the cell in the form of a plasmid containing the genetic instructions for making Cas9 and the guide RNA. However,…

Longevity protein SIRT6 also protects against fatty liver and fatty liver disease – Science Mission

“Fatty liver, or hepatic steatosis, which develops when the body produces too much fat or doesn’t metabolize fat efficiently enough, affects around 25% of the global population. Excess fat is stored in liver cells, where it accumulates and can cause fatty liver and other diseases.

In a study just published in the journal Cell Reports, researchers reveal for the first time that SIRT6, a protein…

Longevity protein SIRT6 also protects against fatty liver and fatty liver disease – Science Mission

“Fatty liver, or hepatic steatosis, which develops when the body produces too much fat or doesn’t metabolize fat efficiently enough, affects around 25% of the global population. Excess fat is stored in liver cells, where it accumulates and can cause fatty liver and other diseases.

In a study just published in the journal Cell Reports, researchers reveal for the first time that SIRT6, a protein…