During the development of an embryo, how is the function of a cell determined? How does a cell “know” it is supposed to, for example, become a nerve cell or part of the gut? How does it know its location within the embryo? How does the process happen? Key articles about cell development and cell determination: *Kemphues, K. J., Priess, J. R., Morton, D. G.,…
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Brown adipose tissue, or brown fat, is a type of fat cell that converts energy into body heat when food is eaten and digested, as opposed to white adipose tissue, or white fat, that is more plentiful and accumulates in noticeable parts of the body (for example, the belly) when too many calories are consumed and too few are expended through exercise. White fat is…
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An update to the Autoimmune diseases–prevention and control bibliography; this article has been added to the bibliography and to the Science Primary Literature Database. Featured article: *Lee, D. J. (2020). The relationship between TIGIT+ regulatory T cells and autoimmune disease. International Immunopharmacology, 83, 1. [Cited by] “The role of regulatory T cells (Treg cell) in controlling autoimmune disease is an area of intense study. As…
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“During the latter half of the twentieth century, spontaneous symmetry breaking became important in biology. All organisms start off as highly symmetric entities, such as a single spherically symmetric cell. As the organism grows, this highly symmetric state becomes unstable, owing either to internal stresses and strains, or to influences from the environment. Enter spontaneous symmetry breaking: the organism will move to one of a…
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