Mar 29, 2022 07:35 PM
(This post was last modified: Mar 29, 2022 08:20 PM by C C.)
Your cells have weird 'tentacles' that help them move around. Here's how they work
https://www.sciencealert.com/cells-have-...-they-move
INTRO: A cell is not an island. Each one has a host of ways to detect its surroundings, and even physically reach out to neighbors or enemies using strange cellular appendages. These tentacle-like protrusions are called filopodia, and a new study has given us more insight into how they allow our cells to move about, by twisting the skeleton-like inner scaffolding.
"These structures play a pivotal role in .. allowing cells to explore their environment, generate mechanical forces, perform chemical signaling, or convey signals via intercellular tunneling nano-bridges," the researchers write in their paper... (MORE - details)
Scientists are inching closer to creating truly hypoallergenic cats
https://gizmodo.com/hypoallergenic-cats-...1848713100
INTRO: A team of researchers say they’ve found an effective way to block the most common source of cat allergies using the gene-editing technology CRISPR. Their findings also suggest that hypoallergenic cats can be just as healthy as the typical feline.
Allergies are most associated with the fur and dander that cats shed into the environment, but those aren’t the true culprit. A protein produced by cats called Fel d 1—which ends up in their saliva and tears and, by extension, the fur that they’re constantly cleaning—is thought to cause over 90% of cat allergies. This has made the protein an appealing target for scientists trying to reduce the burden of cat allergies, which may affect up to 20% of people.
Researchers at the Virginia-based biotech company InBio (previously called Indoor Biotechnologies) have been working on their own approach. They’re hoping to use CRISPR, the Nobel Prize-winning gene editing tech, to produce cats that simply make little to no Fel d 1. In their latest research, published Monday in The CRISPR Journal, they say they’ve collected evidence that this can be done effectively and safely... (MORE - details)
https://www.sciencealert.com/cells-have-...-they-move
INTRO: A cell is not an island. Each one has a host of ways to detect its surroundings, and even physically reach out to neighbors or enemies using strange cellular appendages. These tentacle-like protrusions are called filopodia, and a new study has given us more insight into how they allow our cells to move about, by twisting the skeleton-like inner scaffolding.
"These structures play a pivotal role in .. allowing cells to explore their environment, generate mechanical forces, perform chemical signaling, or convey signals via intercellular tunneling nano-bridges," the researchers write in their paper... (MORE - details)
Scientists are inching closer to creating truly hypoallergenic cats
https://gizmodo.com/hypoallergenic-cats-...1848713100
INTRO: A team of researchers say they’ve found an effective way to block the most common source of cat allergies using the gene-editing technology CRISPR. Their findings also suggest that hypoallergenic cats can be just as healthy as the typical feline.
Allergies are most associated with the fur and dander that cats shed into the environment, but those aren’t the true culprit. A protein produced by cats called Fel d 1—which ends up in their saliva and tears and, by extension, the fur that they’re constantly cleaning—is thought to cause over 90% of cat allergies. This has made the protein an appealing target for scientists trying to reduce the burden of cat allergies, which may affect up to 20% of people.
Researchers at the Virginia-based biotech company InBio (previously called Indoor Biotechnologies) have been working on their own approach. They’re hoping to use CRISPR, the Nobel Prize-winning gene editing tech, to produce cats that simply make little to no Fel d 1. In their latest research, published Monday in The CRISPR Journal, they say they’ve collected evidence that this can be done effectively and safely... (MORE - details)