Lifeboat Foundation

Immune cells have to respond to threats like invading pathogens and cancerous cells, and sometimes, they must push through tissues and move into tight spaces, and do it quickly. New work has shown that some immune cells have their own mechanisms to guide them through environments that are tough to navigate so they can reach the right place in time. This work, which has been reported in Science Immunology, may also help us learn more about boosting the natural immune response.

Dendritic cells are a type of white blood cell that are crucial to the immune response. They help link the general innate immune reaction that fights invaders broadly, and the adaptive immune response, which is aimed at very specific targets. Dendritic cells sit in tissues, monitoring it for foreign substances. If an infection is identified, the dendritic cells swing into action and signaling molecules called chemokines help them move to the lymph nodes to trigger the next part of the immune response.

Telomerase helps maintain telomere length in our cells, influences how our bodies age, and why we develop diseases like cancer. If cells had enough telomerase, telomeres might not shorten at all. But in most somatic cells, it’s present in very low amounts — only enough to slow the telomere shortening down.

This is part of a short series of videos where we explore telomeres, telomere length and telomerase, as well as the impacts they have on our health.

Continue reading “The links between telomerase and aging” »

For the first time, scientists produced human kidneys out of chimeric embryos containing a mix of pig cells and human stem cells. The same technique can be used to produce heart and pancreas.

A team of Chinese researchers has successfully grown early-stage developing human kidneys into female pigs using chimeric embryos.

Continue reading “Scientists grow human kidneys inside pigs using stem cells” »

A new study explores the field of biological brain modeling, determining the brain’s structure is similar to a computer.

The brain has been designated as one of the most complex organs of the human body, comprised of features including intelligence, an interpreter of the senses, an initiator of body movement, and a controller of behavior, according to the National Institute of Health.

Now, a recent study discovered that a living model of this three-pound organ sheds light on the mechanisms of how humans understand and experience the world.

The researchers claim it’s the first “complete” embryo model for simulating all the important components that form in the early embryo.

The science of baby-making is clear. A sperm cell (which contains genetic material from the father) and an egg cell (which contains genetic material from the mother) must fuse in order for a human embryo to develop.

However, science and technology are constantly improving in the fields of embryology and stem cell research.

The discovery surprised scientists when researchers in Israel recently consulted them for their expertise on specialized cells called M cells.

M cells act as gatekeepers for the immune system in organs like the intestine and lungs. They play a crucial role in delivering specialized antigen cells during the development of the body’s immune system.

In the mouse study on the thymic epithelium, researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel wanted to determine the function of M cells in the gut and airways.

Summary: The blood-brain barrier (BBB) in carpenter ants isn’t just a protective boundary, but actively shapes ant behavior.

The BBB produces an enzyme called Juvenile hormone esterase (Jhe) that degrades the Juvenile Hormone (JH3), which promotes foraging behavior. The presence and degradation of JH3 by the BBB helps determine whether an ant becomes a forager or soldier.

Interestingly, similar mechanisms might influence mouse behavior, hinting at broader implications beyond ants.

Tiny dents on thin material produce photon-polarizing magnetic fields.

Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory have developed a technique that can produce polarized photons more easily and cheaply than existing methods. The technique.

Continue reading “How artificial intelligence gave a paralyzed woman her voice back” »

Disrupted connections between memory and appetite regulating brain circuits are directly proportional to body mass index (BMI), notably in patients who suffer from disordered or overeating that can lead to obesity, such as binge eating disorder (BED), according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Published today in Nature, the research notes that individuals who are obese have impaired connections between the dorsolateral hippocampus (dlHPC) and the lateral hypothalamus (LH), which may impact their ability to control or regulate emotional responses when anticipating rewarding meals or treats.

“These findings underscore that some individual’s brains can be fundamentally different in regions that increase the risk for obesity,” senior author, Casey Halpern, MD, an associate professor of Neurosurgery and Chief of Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery at Penn Medicine and the Corporal Michael J. Crescenz Veterans Affairs Medical Center. “Conditions like disordered eating and obesity are a lot more complicated than simply managing self-control and eating healthier. What these individuals need is not more willpower, but the therapeutic equivalent of an electrician that can make right these connections inside their brain.”

The dlHPC is located in the region of the brain that processes memory, and the LH is in the region of the brain that is responsible for keeping the body in a stable state, called homeostasis. Previous research has found an association with loss of function in the human hippocampus in individuals with obesity and related disordered eating, like BED. However, outside of imaging techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the role of the hippocampus has been difficult to study in humans with obesity and related eating disorders.