cell-biology

Intestinal ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury is a common pathophysiological phenomenon that is widely present in various primary intestinal diseases and systemic critical illnesses, potentially leading to multiple organ dysfunction and failure, with high morbidity and mortality.

Nature Biomedical Engineering, Published online: 30 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s41551-026-01677-9 STRAIGHT-IN Dual enables allele-specific integration of two DNA constructs into hiPSCs within 1 week. The system was used to programme hiPSCs into distinct cell types and for tunable expression of different transcription factors within the same cell.

Every few minutes, a living cell does something quietly extraordinary: it sheds tiny membrane bubbles into the fluid around it. These extracellular vesicles carry molecular cargo (proteins, lipids, fragments of RNA) and cells have been doing this for so long that biologists spent decades trying to understand what the bubbles were for. A team at the Technical University of Munich has now turned th…

A collaborative study from the groups of Simon Bullock and Andrew Carter (Cell Biology and Structural Studies Divisions) has found a structural code that explains how cells selectively transport mRNAs.

Oxford University researchers have successfully built and implanted structured human brain tissue into living mouse brains. Over several years, the Oxford Martin Programme on 3D Printing for Brain Repair used stem cells, 3D printing, and microfluidics to engineer layered cortical tissue that integrated with host brain tissue, reduced lesion size in injury models, and communicated…

Nature Communications, Published online: 05 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41467-026-71205-5 Using time-resolved cryo-EM, this study captures fibrillar collagen assembly as it matures from a metastable to a stable state, shedding light on tissue maintenance and disease-linked defects.

Nature Communications, Published online: 05 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41467-026-72395-8 This study identifies a mitochondrial protection pathway that safeguards mitochondrial DNA integrity and limits liver damage. Disrupting this pathway triggers inflammation and fibrosis, while restoring protection or inhibiting DNA sensing markedly ameliorates fatty liver disease.

Highlights Researchers developed a single-molecule imaging technology that can track individual proteins in living cells over long periods of time. In the new study, they used the method to follow EGFR family receptors, which are implicated in several cancers, in human cells. They provide an unprecedented view of how the receptors pair and unpair over […]

New Vilas Research Professors include leaders in study of cells, public opinion, sustainable chemistry and computational optimization

Developmental enhancer-promoter loops can persist into adulthood. Although inactive due to missing trans factors, these latent chromatin interactions encode regulatory memory. We show they can be leveraged to identify pathogenic regulatory mutations using adult chromatin interaction maps.

Nature Cell Biology, Published online: 04 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41556-026-01949-1 Li, Huo, Zhang, Liu and colleagues report that the transcripts of genes involved in haematopoietic stem cell function share a protective mechanism against RNA decay through a non-canonical function of NAT10, independent of its N4-acetylcytidine catalytic activity.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine say they have successfully demonstrated that disrupting an eye structure long suspected of blocking the growth and survival of transplanted nerve cells may help restore vision in people with optic nerve damage. A report on the experiments with animals, stem cells and donated eye tissue was published in Science Translational […]

The human heart shrivels away in space, but researchers have found that mini-hearts grown from human stem cells sprout in space significantly faster than in labs on Earth.

Scientific Reports, Published online: 03 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41598-026-50744-3 Morphological characteristics of corneal stromal stem cells and their age-related decline

Scientists have discovered a way to help the brain clean itself of harmful Alzheimer’s plaques by activating its own support cells. By increasing a protein called Sox9, researchers were able to boost the activity of astrocytes, star shaped cells that help maintain brain health. In mice that already showed memory problems, this approach reduced plaque buildup and preserved cognitive function over …

Scientific Reports, Published online: 02 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41598-026-51200-y TNF-α and IL-1β but not IL-18 counteract TGF-β1 mediated stimulation of collagen accumulation and increased extracellular matrix strength and stiffness

Nature Communications, Published online: 02 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41467-026-72328-5 Synthetic cells with tardigrade protein CAHS12 mimic desiccation survival by stabilizing membranes. This study uncovers how CAHS12 preserves cell structure and suggests new applications in biomanufacturing and adaptive biointerfaces.