Developmental Biology News

March 2, 2025

Top Headlines

Pioneering Work Generates Feline Embryonic Stem Cells in Boon for Cats

Feb. 27, 2025 — Researchers have succeeded in generating high-quality feline embryonic stem cells using sperm and eggs from testes and ovaries discarded during sterilization ...

Cell Connects: Breaking Barriers in Stem Cell Communication Through mRNA Transfer

Feb. 19, 2025 — Messenger RNA can travel between different types of stem cells through tunnel-like structures, as revealed by a new study. By studying interactions between mouse and human stem cells, they discovered ...

Genomics Approach to Metabolism Reveals How Reactions Flow

Feb. 26, 2025 — Two new papers describe a significant advance in understanding the complex functions of the metabolic ...

Comprehensive Resource Describes Functions of More Than 20,000 Human Genes

Feb. 26, 2025 — A comprehensive encyclopedia of the known functions of all protein-coding human genes has just been completed and released. Researchers used large-scale evolutionary modeling to integrate data on human genes with genetic data collected from other ...

Latest Headlines

updated 10:46pm EST

Automatic Cell Analysis With the Help of Artificial Intelligence

Feb. 25, 2025 — Identifying and delineating cell structures in microscopy images is crucial for understanding the complex processes of life. This task is called 'segmentation' and it enables a range of applications, ...

New Insights Into How Gut Cells Respond to Bacterial Toxins

Feb. 25, 2025 — Researchers have found that specific gut cells, BEST4/CA7+ cells, regulate electrolyte and water balance in response to bacterial toxins that cause diarrhea. Their findings show that these cells ...

Digging Into a Decades-Old Hepatitis B Mystery Suggests a New Potential Treatment

Feb. 20, 2025 — In their effort to answer a decades-old biological question about how the hepatitis B virus (HBV) is able to establish infection of liver cells, ...

Biomedicine Shows the Way to Future Food Crops

Feb. 18, 2025 — Researchers have introduced genetic material into plants via their roots, opening a potential pathway for rapid crop ...

Guardian Molecule Keeps Cells on Track -- New Perspectives for the Treatment of Liver Cancer

Feb. 13, 2025 — A guardian molecule ensures that liver cells do not lose their identity. The discovery is of great interest for cancer medicine because a change of ...

Worm Surface Chemistry Reveals Secrets to Their Development and Survival

Feb. 12, 2025 — A new study has revealed the clearest-ever picture of the surface chemistry of worm species that provides groundbreaking insights into how animals interact with their environment and each other. ...

Mouse Study Finds Impaired Cell Development: Intermittent Fasting Could Be Unsafe for Teenagers

Feb. 14, 2025 — A recent study reveals that age plays a significant role in the outcomes of intermittent fasting. Researchers discovered that chronic intermittent ...

Birds Have Developed Complex Brains Independently from Mammals

Feb. 13, 2025 — New research has revealed that birds, reptiles, and mammals have developed complex brain circuits independently, despite sharing a common ancestor. These findings challenge the traditional view of ...

Looking Between Cells

Feb. 11, 2025 — Rhobo6, a light microscopy probe, gives scientists an unprecedented look at the extracellular matrix -- the collection of organized molecular structures that fills the spaces between cells in our ...

Scientists Develop Realistic 'Micro-Gut' Model to Study the Relationship Between Gut Microbes and Human Diseases

Feb. 10, 2025 — In a breakthrough for the advanced study of gut health, scientists have developed a 3D microscopic version of the human intestines condensed into a ...

Less, but More: A New Evolutionary Scenario Marked by Massive Gene Loss and Expansion

Feb. 10, 2025 — Evolution is traditionally associated with a process of increasing complexity and gaining new genes. However, the explosion of the genomic era shows that gene loss and simplification is a much more ...

Mitochondria May Hold the Key to Curing Diabetes

Feb. 7, 2025 — Mitochondria are essential for generating energy that fuels cells and helps them ...

Spliceosome: How Cells Avoid Errors When Manufacturing mRNA

Feb. 7, 2025 — A complex molecular machine, the spliceosome, ensures that the genetic information from the genome, after being transcribed into mRNA precursors, is correctly assembled into mature mRNA. Splicing is ...

Novel 'Living' Biomaterial Aims to Advance Regenerative Medicine

Feb. 6, 2025 — A biomaterial that can mimic certain behaviors within biological tissues could advance regenerative medicine, disease modeling, soft robotics and more, according to ...

Uncovering How Developmental Genes Are Held in a Poised State

Feb. 6, 2025 — New research has investigated the mechanism by which bivalency functions to poise genes for expression during cell differentiation, providing insight into a long-standing paradigm in the regulation ...

Drug Reverses Groin Hernias in Male Mice Without Surgery, Shows Promise in Humans

Feb. 5, 2025 — By age 75, a noteworthy 50% of men develop an inguinal (groin) hernia. Although common, the cause of these hernias is unknown, and the only treatment is surgery to repair the weakened area. Even ...

Illuminating the Beginnings of Animal Development

Feb. 5, 2025 — New biophysics research adds to our knowledge about the origins of left-right asymmetry in the ...

How Healthy Stem Cells Turn Into Oral Cancer

Feb. 4, 2025 — Researchers have identified the molecular and cellular mechanisms that transform healthy stem cells into oral cancer at the earliest stages of the ...

Why Maggots Love the Texture of Decaying Fruit

Jan. 30, 2025 — Researchers have discovered neurons in the fly larva mouth that allow the taste of food texture. The study found that the fly peripheral taste organ has neurons with texture-tasting mechanoreceptors ...

New Microscopy Technique Reveals Dynamic Escherichia Coli Membrane Stiffness

Jan. 29, 2025 — Current optical and electron microscopy imaging techniques are not suited for measuring the dynamic characteristics of living microorganisms at tiny scales due to complex sample preparation methods ...

New Insights Into the Perception of Coffee Taste -- Genetic Predisposition Plays a Role

Jan. 29, 2025 — Why does coffee taste more bitter to some people than it does to others? Researchers have now come closer to answering this question. They have identified a new group of bitter compounds in roasted ...

Cell Death and Aging in Cancer Research Review

Jan. 28, 2025 — The latest findings on the interaction between cell death and cellular senescence in cancer and their pathophysiological significance have been ...

Keeping the Steps of Cell Division in Line

Jan. 28, 2025 — A 'pocket' on the protein cyclin B is responsible for ensuring that the steps of cell division take place in the correct ...

First Mouse With Two Male Parents to Reach Adulthood

Jan. 28, 2025 — A team of stem cell scientists have successfully used embryonic stem cell engineering to create a bi-paternal mouse -- a mouse with two male parents -- that lived until adulthood. Their results ...

Genetic 'Fingerprint' to Predict Drug Resistance in Bacteria

Jan. 28, 2025 — New research has identified a unique genetic signature in bacteria that can predict their likelihood of developing antibiotic resistance, a finding that can help quickly identify precision-based ...

New Insights Into the Immune Response of Plants

Jan. 27, 2025 — Biologists have identified important components and mechanisms of the molecular machinery that transmits information about a pathogen encounter within the plant ...

The Secret 'Sex Lives' of Bacteria: Study Challenges Old Ideas About How Species Form

Jan. 23, 2025 — New research shows bacteria form distinct species and maintain cohesion through frequent DNA exchange via homologous ...

Uncovering the Role of Y Chromosome Genes in Male Fertility in Mice

Jan. 23, 2025 — Researchers have uncovered which genes on the Y chromosome regulate the development of sperm and impact fertility in male mice. This research could help us understand why some men don't produce ...

Solving the Evolutionary Puzzle of Polyploidy: How Genome Duplication Shapes Adaptation

Jan. 23, 2025 — Scientists have developed a theoretical model that uncovers the dual role of polyploidy -- organisms carrying extra genome copies -- in evolution. Their findings reveal that polyploidy can stabilize ...

Many Roads Lead To... the Embryo

Jan. 22, 2025 — Is there only one optimal configuration an organism can reach during evolution? Is there a single formula that describes the trajectory towards the optimum? And can we 'derive' it in a ...