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Cancer models:
The next best thing
A patient's
tumour cells can be transplanted into a mouse to provide
a model for analysis and drug testing. A panel of
paediatric solid tumour models has been extensively
characterized and made freely available. |
Cancer:
Division hierarchy leads to cell
heterogeneity
Cellular
diversity can hamper cancer treatment. Analysis of
tumour cell-division patterns now reveals how such
heterogeneity can arise by a hierarchical pattern of
stem-cell divisions yielding a mosaic of different
cells. |
Neuroscience:
From embryo mutation to adult
degeneration
Mutations in
embryonic blood-cell precursors called erythro-myeloid
progenitors cause abnormal activation of their
descendants — immune cells called microglia — leading to
neurodegeneration in mice. |
Fate mapping
of human glioblastoma reveals an invariant stem cell
hierarchy
Using unique
barcodes for tumour cells, the authors explore the
dynamics of human glioblastoma subpopulations, and
suggest that clonal heterogeneity emerges through
stochastic fate decisions of a neutral proliferative
hierarchy. |
Commensal
bacteria make GPCR ligands that mimic human signalling
molecules
Commensal
bacteria have N-acyl amide synthase genes that
encode signalling molecules (N-acyl amides) that
can interact with G-protein-coupled receptors and elicit
host cellular responses similar to eukaryotic
N-acyl amides. |
Orthotopic
patient-derived xenografts of paediatric solid
tumours
A protocol
producing orthotopic patient-derived xenografts at
diagnosis, recurrence, and autopsy demonstrates proof of
principle for using these tumours for basic and
translational research on paediatric solid
tumours. |
Early members
of ‘living fossil’ lineage imply later origin of modern
ray-finned fishes
High-resolution
scans of fossilized fish skulls suggest that modern
ray-finned fishes originated later than previously
thought and necessitate reconsideration of the evolution
of this major vertebrate group. |
Metallic
molybdenum disulfide nanosheet-based electrochemical
actuators
Electrochemical
actuators based on exfoliated and restacked metallic
MoS2 nanosheet electrodes can generate
mechanical force in electrolyte solution on
intercalation and deintercalation of ions. |
A somatic
mutation in erythro-myeloid progenitors causes
neurodegenerative disease
Braf V600E
expression in resident macrophage progenitors leads to
clonal expansion of ERK-activated microglia, which
causes synaptic and neuronal loss in the brain and
results in lethal neurodegenerative disease in adult
mice. |
Island
biogeography of marine organisms
On marine
islands, most species are good dispersers and most
niches are filled by immigration with little adaptive
radiation; speciation increases over time, associated
with the arrival of weak dispersers that randomly
establish isolated populations. |
Discovery of
stimulation-responsive immune enhancers with CRISPR
activation
The authors use
tiled CRISPR activation for functional enhancer
discovery across two autoimmunity risk loci, CD69
and IL2RA, and identify elements with features of
stimulus-responsive enhancers, including an IL2RA
enhancer that harbours a fine-mapped autoimmunity risk
variant. | |
Type III
CRISPR–Cas systems produce cyclic oligoadenylate second
messengers
CRISPR-associated
protein Csm6 is activated by a cyclic oligoadenylate
second messenger generated by Cas10 activity in the
CRISPR type III interference complex, representing a
novel mechanism of CRISPR interference.
Ole
Niewoehner, Carmela Garcia-Doval, Jakob T. Rostøl et
al. |
Mammals
divert endogenous genotoxic formaldehyde into one-carbon
metabolism
The mechanism by
which formaldehyde, a potent DNA and protein
crosslinking agent, is generated from folate is
described, with implications for the treatment of
certain cancers.
Guillermo
Burgos-Barragan, Niek Wit, Johannes Meiser et
al. |
Identification
of essential genes for cancer
immunotherapy
The authors
describe a two-cell-type CRISPR screen to identify
tumour-intrinsic genes that regulate the sensitivity of
cancer cells to effector T cell
function.
Shashank
J. Patel, Neville E. Sanjana, Rigel J. Kishton et
al. | |
Molecular
machines open cell membranes
Rotary molecular
machines, activated by ultraviolet light, are able to
perturb and drill into cell membranes in a controllable
manner, and more efficiently than those exhibiting
flip-flopping or random motion.
Víctor
García-López, Fang Chen, Lizanne G. Nilewski et
al. |
Very large
release of mostly volcanic carbon during the
Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum
Boron and carbon
isotope data, used in an Earth system model, show that
the Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum was associated
with a much greater release of carbon than thought,
probably triggered by volcanism in the North
Atlantic.
Marcus
Gutjahr, Andy Ridgwell, Philip F. Sexton et
al. |
The rise of
algae in Cryogenian oceans and the emergence of
animals
Steroid
biomarkers provide evidence for a rapid rise of marine
planktonic algae between 659 and 645 million years ago,
establishing more efficient energy transfers and driving
ecosystems towards larger and increasingly complex
organisms.
Jochen
J. Brocks, Amber J. M. Jarrett, Eva Sirantoine et
al. |
Proper-motion
age dating of the progeny of Nova Scorpii AD
1437
The re-discovery
of the binary star system that created the Nova Scorpii
AD 1437 stellar outburst shows that it is now a
dwarf nova, suggesting that nova systems spend some time
as dwarf novae in between larger
outbursts.
M.
M. Shara, K. Iłkiewicz, J. Mikołajewska et
al. |
Feedback
regulation of steady-state epithelial turnover and organ
size
Steady-state
turnover of the Drosophila midgut arises through
an intercellular, E-cadherin–EGFR relay that couples the
death of individual enterocytes to the divisions of
nearby stem cells.
Jackson
Liang, Shruthi Balachandra, Sang Ngo et
al. |
Human iPS
cell-derived dopaminergic neurons function in a primate
Parkinson’s disease model
In a preclinical
study, dopaminergic neurons derived from human induced
pluripotent stem cells were implanted into a primate
model of Parkinson’s disease, where they were found to
exhibit long-term survival, function as mid-brain
dopaminergic neurons, and increase spontaneous
movements.
Tetsuhiro
Kikuchi, Asuka Morizane, Daisuke Doi et
al. |
Homeostatic
control of metabolic and functional fitness of
Treg cells by LKB1
signalling
The tumour
suppressor liver kinase B1 (LKB1) regulates the
metabolic and functional fitness of regulatory T cells
in the control of immune tolerance and
homeostasis.
Kai
Yang, Daniel Bastardo Blanco, Geoffrey Neale et
al. |
Magnetic
antiskyrmions above room temperature in tetragonal
Heusler materials
Antiskyrmions,
in which the magnetization rotates both as a transverse
helix and as a cycloid, are found in acentric tetragonal
Heusler compounds over a wide range of
temperatures.
Ajaya
K. Nayak, Vivek Kumar, Tianping Ma et
al. |
Fast
automated analysis of strong gravitational lenses with
convolutional neural networks
Estimates of
parameters of strong gravitational lenses are obtained
in an automated way using convolutional neural networks,
with similar accuracy and greatly improved speed
compared to previous methods.
Yashar
D. Hezaveh, Laurence Perreault Levasseur, Philip J.
Marshall |
Lhx6-positive
GABA-releasing neurons of the zona incerta promote
sleep
GABAergic
Lhx6+ neurons in the ventral zona incerta
promote both rapid eye movement and non-rapid eye
movement sleep and inhibit the activity of
wake-promoting GABAergic and Hcrt+
neurons of the lateral hypothalamus.
Kai
Liu, Juhyun Kim, Dong Won Kim et
al. |
Public
antibodies to malaria antigens generated by two
LAIR1 insertion modalities
Up to 10% of
individuals in malaria-endemic regions produce
antibodies that react to malaria antigens through an
additional LAIR1 domain that is inserted by two
different insertion modalities.
Kathrin
Pieper, Joshua Tan, Luca Piccoli et
al. |
ISWI
chromatin remodellers sense nucleosome modifications to
determine substrate preference
A
high-throughput approach using a DNA-barcoded nucleosome
library shows that ISWI chromatin remodellers can
distinguish between differently modified
nucleosomes.
Geoffrey
P. Dann, Glen P. Liszczak, John D. Bagert et
al. | |
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