A roadblock for metastases
A drug used to treat patients with tapeworms may help fight deadly colon cancer
Researchers are actively searching for ways to detect and treat colon cancer before a tumor metastasizes. Ulrike Stein's group have found that treating mice with a substance commonly used to rid the body of tapeworms reduces metastases and improves the prognosis for the animals. They hope that the discovery can now lead to an effective treatment in human patients. Their work was reported in the July 6 edition of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Manipulating a matrix of pain
Molecules that bind skin cells together influence the transmission of pain
Pain begins with a response from nerves near the site of an injury. Neurons must generate electrical impulses that travel to other nerves in the spinal column and on to the brain. Gary Lewin's group at the MDC has discovered that some pain signals can be blocked right at the source. A matrix of proteins that bind cells together in the skin can interfere with the contact between neurons and dampen touch sensation. The lab's findings, published in the July 3 issue of Nature Neuroscience, reveal that a matrix protein called laminin-332 helps tune down sensations of pain and touch.
Exposing a Fata Morgana of smell
The Jentsch lab identifies a protein long thought to be crucial to smell... and finds that it isn't
In explaining how mammals detect smells, most textbooks suggest a crucial role for chloride ions that have accumulated in nerve cells. An unknown channel protein was thought to allow the ions to exit neurons and thus amplify odor signals. Now Thomas Jentsch's lab at the MDC and FMP has found the channel protein and made the surprising discovery that animals seem to smell just fine without it. The new study appears in the June issue of Nature Neuroscience.
The first full census of a mammalian cell
MDC researchers track the output of an entire mammalian genome from DNA to proteins for the first time
Scientists at the MDC's Berlin Institute for Medical Systems Biology have managed, for the first time, to solve a central question in molecular biology: they have tracked the complete production of RNAs and proteins from a mammalian genome. The study, carried out by the groups of Matthias Selbach, Wei Chen, and Jana Wolf, measures quantities, lifetimes, and rates of synthesis for RNAs and proteins, providing essential quantitative data for biologists across the world. The work appears in the May issue of Nature.
Leapfrogging the genome of a flatworm
A creative combination of methods gives scientists a head start on the transcriptome of planaria and other organisms
A crucial step in understanding the biology of organisms is to have a complete list of the molecules that can be produced by their cells. Normally this requires a full genome sequence and a range of experiments to detect the RNAs and proteins it produces. Now four groups from BIMSB have combined methods in a unique way to obtain much of this information and create a detailed version of a genome in the absence of the full sequence, which will allow scientists to leap ahead in their work. The paper appears in the July edition of Genome Research.
Fratricide among T cells
Exposing a potential obstacle in treating cancer patients with their own immune cells
One of the most promising new approaches in the fight against cancer is the attempt to train a patient's own immune system to fight a tumor. Researchers hope to isolate white blood cells called T cells from a patient, outfit them with molecules that recognize cancerous cells, grow them quickly in the lab, and reintroduce them into the patient's body. Wolfgang Uckert's lab at the MDC, collaborating with Dolores J. Schendel's lab at the Helmholtz Center in Munich, has now clarified one of the problems in doing so. Their work appeared in a recent issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
Here comes the rat
New genetic engineering methods are restoring the status of rats in biomedical research
In the age of modern genetics, research into the rat has been limited by a lack of tools to manipulate its genes, meaning that this important model has lagged behind other animals such as the mouse and fruit fly. That is unfortunate because rats are more closely related to our species and can potentially reveal more about human diseases. Two recent studies by the group of Zsuzsanna Izsvák and Zoltán Ivics, published in the journals Nature Methods and Methods, are now giving researchers the tools to help the rat catch up.