Beyond the average cell

Models based on an average cell are useful, but they may not accurately describe how individual cells really work. New possibilities opened up with the advent of single-cell live imaging technologies. Now it is possible to peer into the lives of individual cells. In a new paper in PLOS Genetics, a team of biologists and physicists from Washington University in St. Louis and Purdue University used actual single-cell data to create an updated framework for understanding the relationship between cell growth, DNA replication and division in a bacterial system.

Enzyme, proteins work together to tidy up tail ends of DNA in dividing cells

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have described the way an enzyme and proteins interact to maintain the protective caps, called telomeres, at the end of chromosomes, a new insight into how a human cell preserves the integrity of its DNA through repeated cell division. DNA replication is essential for perpetuating life as we know it, but many of the complexities of the process — how myriad biomolecules get where they need to go and interact over a series of intricately orchestrated steps — remain mysterious.

MD Anderson Research Highlights for July 13, 2022

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Research Highlights provides a glimpse into recent basic, translational and clinical cancer research from MD Anderson experts. Current advances include new targets involved in protecting DNA replication forks and preventing inflammatory responses, a new treatment option for elderly patients with late-stage acute myeloid leukemia, insights into the breast cancer tumor microenvironment, biomarkers of response to targeted and immune therapies, a novel cellular therapy option for osteosarcoma and a new target for inducing ferroptosis in cancer cells.

UC San Diego Computer Scientist Plays Major Role in $25M Cancer Grand Challenges Project

University of California San Diego computer scientist Vineet Bafna is part of a team of world-class researchers that has been awarded a five-year, $25 million Cancer Grand Challenges grant to learn how the destructive genetic lesion extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA) influences numerous cancers and to identify possible therapies.

Successful DNA replication in cyanobacteria depends on the circadian clock

A new study from the University of Chicago has found that the photosynthetic bacterium Synechococcus elongatus uses a circadian clock to precisely time DNA replication, and that interrupting this circadian rhythm prevents replication from completing and leaves chromosomes unfinished overnight.