General

Telomeres are caps of repeated DNA sequences at the ends of chromosomes. A little of the telomere length is lost with each cell division. A somatic cell with short telomeres ceases replication, and usually self-destructs. All cancers must thus continually lengthen telomeres in order to engage in unfettered replication and […]

Blue light is illuminating new understanding of a key signaling pathway in embryo development, tissue maintenance and cancer genesis. Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign developed an approach using blue light to activate the Wnt (pronounced “wint”) signaling pathway in frog embryos. The pathway plays a wide variety of […]

The autoimmune disease lupus may be triggered by a defective process in the development of red blood cells (RBCs), according to a study led by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine. The discovery could lead to new methods for classifying and treating patients with this disease. The researchers, who published their […]