Dedicated to the acceptance, medical treatment, & legal protection of individuals in the process of correcting the misalignment of their anatomical sex, & supporting their transition into society.
Evanston, IL, USA. A less specialized cell becomes a more specialized cell type during a process called cellular differentiation. The ultimate fate of the cell (its cell fate) is determined by t...
Houston, TX, USA. Cell biology explores how a single cell subdivides into different functions and organs. Understanding this process depends, in part, on understanding how molecular changes produce differe...
New York, NY, USA. Cell division in humans is a process by which a parent cell divides into two or more daughter cells. There is a point of no return in the life of every cell. Once it enters the cell cyc...
Cambridge, MA, USA. New research findings have important implications for human cell types and tissues, including the brain, liver, and lung. While studying cell division, biologists discovered that proliferat...
Cincinnati, OH, USA. Our nervous system consists of a centralized brain and nerve cord (the CNS), as well as a peripheral sensory system (the PNS). They are intricately linked up to detect stimuli, process info...
Columbia, MO, USA. Attempts to understand human development begin with the production of eggs and sperm, the initiators of fertilization and a possible embryo. Numerous error correction mechanisms exist t...
Nottingham, UK. For an organism to develop and function, the individual cells must exchange information, or communicate, with each other. Is it possible to learn their language and actually talk to the cells? Yes. In cell biology, a vesicle is a small, membrane-bounded sac. Vesicles store, transport, or digest cellular products and waste. They are a basic tool of the cell for organizing metabolism, transport, enzyme storage, as well as being chemical reaction chambers.
Scientists at the University of Nottingham (UK) used sugar groups on the vesicle surface to enable the first conversation between bacterial cells and artificial polymer vesicles. The vesicles subsequently transfer information to the cells — in the form of dye molecules.
Complex structures made of many sugar components on the surfaces of cells are the “language” used for processes such as cell recognition, for example, in the differentiation of tissues or the identification of endogenous cells and foreign invaders.
Scientists would like to be able to use this glycocode to “address” target cells and to intervene directly in cellular processes to correct birth conditions, treat diseases or to guide regeneration of damaged tissues.
The scientists took an interesting route to learn more about the language of cells: they constructed vesicles, tiny capsules whose outer shell is made of special polymer building blocks. The polymer chains are equipped with side chains bearing glucose units that wind up being exposed on the vesicle surface.
Double hydrophilic block copolymers containing glucose functionalities form vesicles in aqueous solutions with sugar groups on their surface. Small vesicles form large aggregates with glucose-binding lectins or cells, whereas larger vesicles form discrete complexes. The language of association between cells and vesicles was demonstrated, and information transfer was shown by dye transport from vesicle to cell through glycopolymer links.
Cameron Alexander and George Pasparakis published their findings in the journal Angewandte Chemie.
The researchers brought the vesicles together with bacteria that have glucose-binding proteins on their surface. The behavior of the bacteria varies depending on the polymer’s composition and the size of the vesicles.
Among the bacteria were some individuals that enter into very strong bonds with large vesicles. These associated bacteria are then in a position to receive molecular “information” from the vesicles: dye molecules that were previously placed in the vesicles transferred specifically into the interior of these bacteria.
Cameron Alexander is an Associate Professor & Reader in Advanced Drug Delivery. "Our vesicles can be viewed as simple replicas of living cells,” says Alexander, “that can communicate with real cells by way of the glycocode as well as through signal molecules inside the vesicles.”
Possible applications include drug transporters that deliver their cargo to specific target cells, or antibiotic transporters that deliver their toxic load exclusively to infectious agents.
Other individuals who contributed to the research are Dr. Kris Thurecht for RAFT agents, Dr. Natalio Krasnogor and Prof. Steve Howdle for discussions, and Dr. Alan Cockayne for help with microbiological assays and analysis.
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Crazy Sexy Cancer. This is the trailer for a documentary film by Kris Carr about her cancer adventure. It premiered on TLC and Discovery Health (Fall 2007).
Kris also authored two books, Crazy Sexy Cancer Tips and Crazy Sexy Cancer Survivor: More Rebellion and Fire for Your Healing Journey.
Cameron Alexander and George Pasparakis published their findings in the journal 
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