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Anatomy

Technical Boost: PGIMER to set up state-of-the-art anatomy museum – The Indian Express

Written by Adil Akhzer | Chandigarh | Published:June 15, 2017 4:12 am PGI doctors maintained that the institutes collection of human organs dates back to the 1970s. Of the total preserved organs, the majority are of the human brain, numbering around 2,500. ( File Photo)

The Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) is planning to set up a museum for anatomy. Doctors said the proposed start-of-the-art museum would act as a teaching aid for medical students as well as serve as an attraction for visitors.

At present, PGI has an anatomy museum on the campus, but the new plan is for a manifold expansion. The proposal that has now been prepared would require an outlay of approximately Rs 2 crore. Our existing collection runs into thousands of organ specimens from the human body. It is probably the largest collection in India. These could be an excellent source of medical education for resident doctors and faculty of the institute and even other institutes of the country. With improved display and modernisation [in the new plan], it could be one of the best museums of Asia, PGI spokeswoman Manju Wadwalkar told the Chandigarh Newsline on Wednesday.

The museum, as it exists now, is located in a hall in the research block of PGI. Not all specimens in the collection are on display due to the shortage of space. The main visitors are PGIs medical students. The organ collection includes both healthy and diseased specimens, harvested from cadavers.

PGI doctors maintained that the institutes collection of human organs dates back to the 1970s. Of the total preserved organs, the majority are of the human brain, numbering around 2,500. The world over, teaching hospitals have museums that are as well known as the institute itself. The Gordon Museum of Anatomy at Guys Hospital in London is one such.

The Mutter Museum in Philadelphia at the non-teaching College of Physicians is famous for its exhibit of a piece of Albert Einsteins brain. According to the new proposal, PGI officials said the museum would be divided into zones spread over different floors.

The collection will be curated in the new museum in a manner so that the visitor can have a seamless learning experience of visiting the museum, said an official. There will be different zones, including one for histology (study of microscopic tissues), self-study area, conference space, childrens section and also a tunnel of reflection, he stated.

An additional mezzanine floor has been designed in the new plan to further connect via aerial bridge with the existing mezzanine, informed the official, adding that the new museum would remain open for the general public as well. A senior PGI official said: Huge money is involved and the proposal is under active consideration. Also, deliberations on the financial part of the project have begun.

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Technical Boost: PGIMER to set up state-of-the-art anatomy museum - The Indian Express

Anatomy

Anatomy of Andrew Benintendi’s game-saving throw home – WEEI.com (blog)

This was no accident.

When Andrew Benintendi threw out Howie Kendrick at the plate with one out in the eighth inning, potentially saving the game for the Red Sox Tuesday night, it might have simply seemed like a nice toss home coupled with an ill-advised decision by the base-runner to try and score. (To see the play, click here.)

Butthere were a few more factors at play when considering what made Benintendi's throw possible.

The execution of the action could first be tracked back to the night before, when the Red Sox left fielder had scurried over to get a ball before hastily trying to pick it up with his barehand. That resulted in a bad throw. So when Benintendi approached the ricochet off the left field wall - which emanated from Maikel Franco's blast just a few feet shy of reaching home run distance - the memory of Monday night immediately flashed into his head.

"I was going to make sure I picked it up with my glove," Benintendi later said. "I didn't last time, and that didn't work."

The next piece of the equation was also a lesson learned, this one garnered during pregame activities. Prior to Tuesday night's game, Benintendi had joined the other outfielders in working on all their throws to the bases. They were drills that aren't done every day, but ended up being perfectly timed for this occasion, particuarly since it let the rookie get the kinks out.

"I was throwing all cutters. Not straight balls," Benintendi said of his practices tosses. "But the game is all that matters."

But perhaps what made the whole thing come together was simply a demeanor that many have referenced when describing the 22 year old. Throughout the chaos that came with the Red Sox' fate hanging in the balance, Benintendi remained remarkablycalm.

"I saw where the runner was and I saw how he had it gauged up. There was no sense in him panicking," said Red Sox center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr.. "He played the ball the way he was supposed to, but just got a hard kick. As he was running to get the ball I saw him pick his head up and kind of analyze where he was. That's why he knew the distance that he was wasn't very far and he able to throw a strike to home plate."

"To remain under control," said Red Sox manager John Farrell when asked what impressed him most about the play. "Hes got to chase that ball a long way after the carom. He comes up, throws a strike to home plate. Its the even temperament that he shows in probably every aspect of the game, particularly the final swing tonight."

That swing, of course, was Benintndi's first career walk-off hit, giving the Red Sox a 4-3, 12-inning win over the Phillies.

It's a swing that probably isn't made possible, however, if not for the outfielder's casual throw and catch with backstop Chritian Vazquez about an hour before.

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Anatomy of Andrew Benintendi's game-saving throw home - WEEI.com (blog)

Anatomy

London Theater Review: ‘Anatomy of a Suicide’ – Variety

The sins of the father revisited on the son its a stage staple that tracks back to Ancient Greece. From Captain Alving in Ibsens Ghosts to Arthur Millers arms-dealing Joe Keller in All My Sons, a mans acts live on. Feminist playwright (Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again.) and screenwriter (Lady Macbeth) Alice Birch offers an alternative in this chilly triptych, now play at the Royal Court Theater. Not once, but twice, a mothers trauma rebounds on her daughter. Mental illness becomes a baton passed between three generations: a frazzled 1970s housewife, a 1990s riot girl, a detached doctor in 2033. Katie Mitchells clinical staging forces us to watch forensically, sifting for clues about causality. Is this nature, nurture or social structure?

Birch splits the stage in three, so that three women, decades apart, appear side by side. In 1971, Carol (Hattie Morahan) emerges from hospital with her wrists wrapped in bandages, her husband berating her for ruining the floorboards. In 1997, Anna (Kate OFlynn) wobbles on her feet, off her bloodied head, with one arm in a sling, as a male nurse checks her over and ticks her off. In 2033, a third woman holds her bleeding hand, a fishhook dug into the palm but its her expressionless doctor, Bonnie (Adelle Leonce), who assumes importance.

These women couldnt be more different, and yet their individual stories echo each other sometimes exactly, as phrases and gestures ripple through time. Carol sits at home, alone, infantilized by her stern, shambolic husband (Paul Hilton), smoking at the kitchen table, a child crying somewhere in the house. Anna rampages off the rails, a laddette with a heroin addiction partying through the millennium. Bonnie, meanwhile, shuts everyone out. She might seem the most sorted of the three, but shes not really. All three incur mental health problems of some form or another: a mix of anxiety, depression and detachment.

Its only gradually that we realise that theyre related three generations of the same family. As each individual narrative unfolds, it adds a little more context to the next. One womans life encompasses the others childhood, and so explains the issues they face in adulthood. Eerily, you intuit their deaths before they take place. Each is strangely absent from their daughters life and yet, equally, ever-present.

Its a beautifully organised play, an elegant information overload. Birch is an exacting writer; Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again proved her precision with language, but here, as in her recent film Lady Macbeth, she lets small slices of life assume momentous significance. As Carol smokes a sly cigarette at a childrens party, Anna crashes into a drug-induced coma. Bonnie stands outside a birthday bash, bottle in hand. Many of the micro-scenes have a painterly quality, a stark, unsentimental beauty.

Set designer Alex Eales encases the women in a grey concrete cell so that the world seems oddly absent, and only James Farncombes articulate lighting gives a sense of place. Melanie Wilsons soundscapes swim around like underwater echoes. Between scenes, as the years pass, the women stand, still as mannequins, as castmates undress and reclothe them. Fashions change, women dont, nor society neither any shifts are merely superficial. Birchs play is, among other things, a history of the care system. Patrician doctors become scrubbed-up careworkers, but the treatment prescribed is still the same: electric shock therapy.

As youd expect of the meticulous Mitchell, all three women are played with extraordinary clarity. Morahan wears a faraway frown as Carol, her eyes wide and watery, while OFlynn chews her words as if permanently brain-fuzzed and physically discombobulated. Leonce plays Bonnie with a clean-cut aloofness that almost borders on dissociation, as if to complete the cycle.

Theres something schematic in a play that works entirely through patterns. Birch asks us to compare and contrast, but the triptych form can feel like the complete-the-sequence section of an IQ test: A, B, ?. A mother who feels too little produces a daughter who feels too much. Her daughter, in turn, retreats to a numb silence. Sarah Blenkinsops costumes stress the point: Carol in red, Anna in green and black, Bonnie in white with hints of red. The driving concept is too close to the surface here, the causal chain too certain to ring true. That each woman is so of-their-own-era only exacerbates the problem. All three feel emblematic, rather than idiosyncratic individuals, and it can feel like Birchs thesis is leading her play.

Thats a small grumble, though, in an otherwise unflinching examination of motherhood and mental health, articulated with a sharp sense of theater.

Royal Court Theatre, London; 465 seats; 45, $57 top. Opened, June 8, 2016 reviewed June 8, 2016. Running time:2 HOURS.

A Royal Court production of a play in one act by Alice Birch.

Directed by Katie Mitchell; Set design,Alex Eales; costume design, Sarah Blenkinsop; lighting, James Farncombe; sound, Melanie Wilson; composer, Paul Clark.

Gershwyn Eustache Jnr, Paul Hilton, Peter Hobday, Adelle Leonce, Sarah Malin, Jodie McNee, Hattie Morahan, Kate OFlynn, Sophie Pettit, Vicki Szent-Kirallyi, Dickon Tyrrell.

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London Theater Review: 'Anatomy of a Suicide' - Variety

Human Behavior

Freewheeling Uber faces major changes over "poor behavior" – CBS News

SAN FRANCISCO Uber grew into a huge company by operating as if there were no stop signs.

The ride-hailing service relied on corporate mantras that were used to justify "poor behavior," such as "Let Builders Build" and "Always Be Hustlin'," according to a report on the company's internal practices by attorney general Eric Holder.

Its board is cracking down, its founder and CEO is stepping away indefinitely, and the company itself is coming to grips with measures intended to reform its toxic culture and aggressive business practices.

And it all started when Susan Fowler, a former Uber engineer, posted a personal essay in February that detailed the company's toleration of sexual harassment and discrimination. Had she not come forward in such a public manner, it's possible none of this would have happened.

"What she did took real courage," said Elizabeth Ames, a senior vice president at the Anita Borg Institute, a nonprofit founded to advance women in the technology business. "There are many women in companies and technical worlds (who) step up and talk about this problem. And often they are the ones that get tagged as being the problem."

Following Fowler's post, Uber hired former Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate her charges. His law firm's subsequent recommendations, released Tuesday, aim to fix Uber's dysfunctional management, which allowed the male-dominated ride-hailing company to grow huge without even the most basic procedures to prevent sexual harassment, bullying and other bad behavior.

Also on Tuesday, Uber founder and CEO Travis Kalanick accepted responsibility for the company's state and told employees that he'd be taking an indefinite leave of absence. The company declined to say if Kalanick's decision was related to the report.

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Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has announced he's taking some time off, following the death of his mother two weeks ago. This comes as the company is b...

But Kalanick wasn't the only Uber official sucked into the vortex unleashed by Fowler's essay. On Monday, the company announced that Emil Michael, vice president for business and a close Kalanick ally, was also leaving. Then Uber board member and hedge fund partner David Bonderman resigned Tuesday night after making what he called an inappropriate remark about women at a company meeting.

The 13-page document from Holder's firm Covington & Burling LLP did not outline the investigation's findings about Uber. But its recommendations implicitly expose a startup-turned-goliath that permitted misconduct, had few policies to protect employees and ran with little board supervision.

The recommendations, adopted unanimously by Uber's board, show clearly that the company's next incarnation dubbed Uber 2.0 by Kalanick will have to be radically different from version 1.0, which flouted regulations, actively misled public investigators , and disrupted the taxi business to become the world's largest ride-hailing company.

In her essay, Fowler wrote that she was propositioned by her manager on her first day with an engineering team. She reported him to human resources, but was told he would get a lecture and no further punishment because he was a "high performer," she wrote.

Fowler did not respond to emailed requests for comment. But on Twitter , she called Tuesday's moves "all optics" and wrote that she has gotten nothing but "aggressive hostility" from the company.

After interviewing 200 witnesses, Holder had to make such basic recommendations as setting clear policies to protect workers from harassment, and that the human resources department get a better handle on keeping records and tracking employee complaints.

The recommendations "definitely paint a picture of a company that was out of control and pretty chaotic," said Ames, the Borg Institute executive.

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Uber's Chief Business Officer Emil Michael resigned after a series of bullying and sexual harassment allegations against the ride-hailing company...

Holder also suggested that Uber change its written cultural values to promote positive behavior, inclusion and collaboration. That means doing away with values that justified poor behavior, such as "Let Builders Build," ''Always Be Hustlin'," ''Meritocracy and Toe-Stepping" and "Principled Confrontation."

Holder also called for trimming Kalanick's job duties, shifting day-to-day functions to a yet-to-be-hired chief operating officer. During Kalanick's leave, his leadership team will run the troubled company.

Kalanick wrote that he needs time off to grieve for his mother, who died in a May boating accident. He also said he's responsible for the company's situation and needs to become a better leader.

Uber's board said it would review Kalanick's responsibilities and reassign some to others.

Ames said the recommendations were strong but indicated Uber had few policies, and the ones it had were not followed.

The board unanimously approved the recommendations on Sunday, including a suggestion that a senior executive be tasked with making sure they are implemented. Apparently because of distrust of some leaders, Holder recommended that care be taken to make sure the executive "is viewed positively by the employees."

The company released only Holder's recommendations, not his full report, citing the need to protect employees who complained.

Liane Hornsey, Uber's chief human resources officer who started in January, said implementing the recommendations "will improve our culture, promote fairness and accountability, and establish processes and systems to ensure the mistakes of the past will not be repeated."

Holder also recommended adding independent directors and replacing the board chairman, co-founder Garrett Camp, with an independent person. The board currently has eight voting members, three from within the company.

Uber was also advised to make sure its workforce is more diverse. The company's diversity figures are similar to the rest of Silicon Valley, with low numbers for women and underrepresented minorities. In the U.S., less than a third of the company's workers are female.

In addition, the report says that diversity and inclusiveness should be a key value for Uber that's included in management training.

After Fowler posted her essay, Uber Technologies Inc. made changes in human resources and opened a 24-hour hotline for employees. Last week, the company fired 20 people, including some managers, at the recommendation of Perkins Coie, which separately investigated 215 employee complaints.

Under Kalanick, Uber has disrupted the taxi industry in hundreds of cities and turned the San Francisco-based company into the world's most valuable startup. As of late last year, Uber's private-market valuation had climbed to nearly $70 billion.

Besides the sexual harassment complaints, in recent months Uber has been threatened by boycotts, sued and subject to a federal investigation over its use of a fake version of its app to thwart authorities looking into whether it is breaking local laws.

Play Video

A racy rule book for Uber that includes guidelines for having sex with co-workers has surfaced. CBS San Francisco's Joe Vazquez has more.

A company can be aggressive yet have strong values, said Joseph Holt, a business ethics professor at the University of Notre Dame. He cited Starbucks as an example.

"Having a good reputation for ethics is a competitive advantage," Holt said.

A culture change at Uber may be more difficult than Holder envisions.

At an employee meeting Tuesday morning, Bonderman remarked that if a woman was added to the board that there likely would be more talking, according to a recording obtained by Yahoo.

By evening, Bonderman resigned and put out a statement saying the comment was careless and inappropriate. "I do not want my comments to create distraction as Uber works to build a culture of which we can be proud," the statement said.

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Freewheeling Uber faces major changes over "poor behavior" - CBS News

Human Behavior

President Donald J. Trump Announces Intent to Nominate Personnel to Key Administration Posts – The White House (blog)

President Donald J. Trump today announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key positions in his Administration:

If confirmed, Jessica Rosenworcel of Connecticut will serve as a Member of the Federal Communications Commission. Jessica Rosenworcel was recently a Commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission from 2012 until January 2017. Previously, she was the Senior Communications Counsel for the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, working for Senator Jay Rockefeller IV from 2009 to 2011, and Senator Daniel K. Inouye from 2007 to 2008. Before joining the Committee, Ms. Rosenworcel worked at the Federal Communications Commission from 1999 to 2007, serving as Legal Advisor and then Senior Legal Advisor to Commissioner Michael J. Copps (2003-2007), Legal Counsel to the Bureau Chief of the Wireline Competition Bureau (2002-2003), and as an Attorney-Advisor in the Policy Division of the Common Carrier Bureau (1999-2002). From 1997 to 1999, she was a communications associate at Drinker Biddle and Reath. Ms. Rosenworcel received a B.A. from Wesleyan University and a J.D. from New York University School of Law.

If confirmed, Isabel Marie Keenan Patelunas ofVirginia will serve as Assistant Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis at the Department of the Treasury. Ms. Patelunas is an accomplished member of the Senior Intelligence Service at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), where she has served since 1989. For the last 15 years, she has been in management positions at the CIA supporting the highest levels of government, including serving on rotation to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence as Director of the Presidents Daily Brief staff. Ms. Patelunas previously served as Deputy Director of CIAs Office of Middle East and North Africa Analysis, and as Director of the Advanced Analysis Training Program. She has also served in leadership positions in the National Counterproliferation Center and the Weapons Intelligence, Nonproliferation and Arms Control Office. She holds an M.A. from the University of Maryland in International Relations, and a B.A. from the University of Notre Dame

If confirmed, Elinore F. McCance-Katz of Rhode Island will serve as Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use at the Department of Health and Human Services. Elinore McCance-Katz is the Chief Medical Officer for the Rhode Island Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities, and Hospitals. She is also Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior and Professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences at the Alpert Medical School at Brown University. Previously, she served as the first Chief Medical Officer for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). She obtained her PhD from Yale University with a specialty in Infectious Disease Epidemiology and is a graduate of the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. She is board certified in General Psychiatry and in Addiction Psychiatry. She is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry, and has more than 25 years of experience as a clinician, teacher, and clinical researcher.

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President Donald J. Trump Announces Intent to Nominate Personnel to Key Administration Posts - The White House (blog)

Genetics

Select Sires Inc., and Accelerated Genetics to join forces – Wisconsin State Farmer

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Wisconsin State Farmer 4:57 p.m. CT June 13, 2017

Select Sires Inc., and Accelerated Genetics will join forces this summer.(Photo: Select Sires Inc.)

BARABOO, WI - Two well known A.I. organizations will join forces this summer.

The board of directors for Select Sires Inc., and Accelerated Genetics reached a unanimous decision to unify the two cooperatives. Under the planned agreement, Select Sires will acquire the assets of Accelerated Genetics, joining together employees and independent sales representatives in each of their geographical member organizations.

This decision coincides with an already collaborative business relationship that began in 2001, where each shares ownership of World Wide Sires, Ltd. World Wide Sires serves as the international marketing arm for both companies in Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Oceania.

On June 22, 2017, Accelerated Genetics delegates will come together to cast the final vote on the direction of the cooperative. The goal is to create a unified cooperative that is second-to-none in the market place dedicated to the producer, according to company officials.

This impending endeavor is expected to create a well-rounded genetics program and solution-based animal health care product line that will fit the needs of dairy and beef producers worldwide. Producers can expect to continue working with highly qualified, passionate individuals, who know and understand the cattle breeding industry.

Based in Plain City, OH, Select Sires Inc. is North Americas largest A.I. organization and is comprised of nine farmer-owned and -controlled cooperatives

Read or Share this story: http://www.wisfarmer.com/story/news/state/2017/06/13/select-sires-inc-and-accelerated-genetics-join-forces/394333001/

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Select Sires Inc., and Accelerated Genetics to join forces - Wisconsin State Farmer

Embryology

LETTER: Abortion is a human rights issue – New Jersey Hills

EDITOR: Regarding the analogy of prohibition of alcohol, among other examples of people engaging in forbidden acts, used by Helen Koenig in her letter to the editor on Thursday, June 8, it hardly compares to the taking of lives of the most vulnerable of all humans; the baby, yes a viable human being confirmed by modern science and composed of human DNA.

At about 22 days after conception, the child's cardiovascular system is developed and his heartbeat can be detected on ultrasound. At just six weeks, the child's eyes and eyelids, nose, mouth and tongue have formed.

By the end of the second month all organs and bodily structures have been developed. During fetal surgery, the baby is administered anesthesia separate from his mother.

Unborn humans, depending upon the stage, are weaker, lesser developed, more helpless and less personable than born humans, but this does not make them any less human. Embryology has made this very clear. The fetus, therefore, is a living, breathing human and cannot be compared to a tree trunk as Koenig implies.

In 1865, the 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution was ratified to outlaw slavery. However, a modern form of slavery - human trafficking - still exists in America today. This surely doesnt mean that slavery should still be allowed just because it exists illegally.

I have heard the expression time and time again that abortion is the scourge of our time, just like slavery was the scourge of previous centuries. Thankfully, there is a movement among the younger generation who can see abortion for what it really is. I am hopeful that in the future, society will look back to our era and wonder how we could have let abortion happen in the first place, just like when we ponder how slavery could have ever been made legal.

Abortion is a social justice and a human rights issue to the very core.

Aside from the psychological impact abortion has on the mother, it has been well established that induced abortion can cause breast cancer. There have been 37 worldwide studies from 1957-2013 that support this fact, which is sadly ignored by cancer organizations due to political reasons.

I do agree with Koenig that more education is badly needed, so people will truly see that abortion is not the answer and the infanticide that has been taking place can finally come to an end.

Most people who take the pro-life stance deeply care about pregnant women and understand how an unplanned pregnancy can be a tremendous stressor in life. This has resulted in a network of crisis pregnancy centers throughout the country to help women who do not have the means to care for their baby or may have been shunned by family.

They also care about post abortive women and the issues they face resulting in organizations such as Rachels Vineyard and Hope after Abortion.

Lastly, for readers who might say keep your religious and moral beliefs to yourself, well, that is just what those who worked to abolish slavery were told.

CINDY DECORGES

Far Hills

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LETTER: Abortion is a human rights issue - New Jersey Hills

Cell Biology

Dengue: Do mast cells contribute to more severe disease? – Outbreak News Today

Why mosquito-borne dengue virus causes more severe disease in some individuals, including hemorrhagic fever with or without shock, remains controversial and researchers are focusing on the factors related to the interaction between the virus and the host immune system, including the role of mast cells.

An in-depth review of the latest research showing how mast cells can be both protective and can contribute to the most severe forms of dengue is presented in the article Role of Mast Cells in Dengue Virus Pathogenesis, published in DNA and Cell Biology, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the DNA and Cell Biology website through July 3, 2017.

Coauthors Berlin Londono-Renteria, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, Julio Marinez-Angarita, Instituto Nacional de Salud, Bogota, Colombia, and Andrea Troupin and Tonya Colpitts, University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Columbia, SC, study how mast cells recognize and interact with dengue virus and how mosquito saliva may affect the degranulation response of mast cells and the local immune responses during dengue virus infection in human skin. The researchers provide insights on what occurs during the early stages of dengue transmission and the mechanisms involved in mast cell activation and degranulation, which can increase the permeability of the human vasculature, causing it to become leaky.

Mast cells are best known for their roles in allergies (such as pollen or food) and, for rare people, sensitivity to the saliva injected by mosquitos during bites. In this BIT, Colpitts and co-authors demonstrate the contributions of these cells to the pathogenesis of dengue, a severe disease, says Carol Shoshkes Reiss, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of DNA and Cell Biology and Professor, Departments of Biology and Neural Science, and Global Public Health at New York University, NY. Understanding this may lead us to new approaches to the treatment of dengue fever and dengue shock syndrome. The latter secondary infection can be life-threatening.

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Dengue: Do mast cells contribute to more severe disease? - Outbreak News Today

Cell Biology

Regulatory protein ensures that egg precursor cells boost their numbers during embryonic development – Phys.Org

June 14, 2017

Female babies are born with a full set of egg precursors in their ovaries, yet the molecular mechanism by which these cells proliferate during embryonic development was unclear. Now, using a mouse model created at A*STAR, an international team of researchers has pinpointed the regulatory factors needed for this rapid cell division to occur in the developing female gonad.

"We have paved the way to study different cell cycle regulatory pathways that may go awry during development," says study author Philipp Kaldis, a senior principal investigator at the A*STAR Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology. Future research in this area, he notes, could lead to new treatments for cancer and infertility.

The embryonic cells that give rise to eggs are known as primordial germ cells, or PGCs. In micewhich have a similar but faster gestation than humansPGCs are identifiable at around the 7th day of development. By day 8, these cells temporarily stop dividing as they migrate inside the embryo. Then, around day 9.5, the cells enter a three-day period of frenetic growth in which they duplicate every 12 hours and the total number of PGCs increases around 50-fold.

Kaldis suspected that a protein called MASTL might be involved in this 72-hour bonanza of cell division since he and others had previously shown that MASTL is essential for the cell cycle to move forward in other cell types and other species.

He thus genetically engineered a mouse in which he could selectively delete the gene encoding MASTL from PGCs. Kaldis then sent the mice to Kiu Liu and Sanjiv Risal at the University of Gothenberg in Sweden, and collectively they showed that the PGCs in these mice could not complete the anaphase step in the cell cycle, in which the duplicated sets of chromosomes are meant to separate inside the dividing cell.

As a result, the PGCs were defective and died instead of multiplying. However, Kaldis and his team showed that proper cell division could be restored in the MASTL-deficient mice if they simultaneously wiped out another cell cycle regulator called PP2A.

The researchers concluded that MASTL normally functions to suppress the activity of PP2A to enable anaphase to proceed properly. And since defects in these germ cells often lead to tumors or infertility, it's possible, Kaldis notes, that MASTL and PP2A are implicated in these health problems as well. "We hope this work will stimulate new research in PGCs," he says.

Explore further: A protein that ensures correct chromosome segregation during cell division can lead to cancer if mutated

More information: Sanjiv Risal et al. MASTL is essential for anaphase entry of proliferating primordial germ cells and establishment of female germ cells in mice, Cell Discovery (2017). DOI: 10.1038/celldisc.2016.52

A protein linked to cancer helps ensure that chromosomes are apportioned evenly after each round of cell division. This protein, called Mastl in humans, is essential for creating two identical copies of the cell. Its discovery ...

Germline cells are the only cells that develop into eggs or sperm, while somatic cells develop into the body. Progenitors of the germline, known as primordial germ cells (PGCs), differentiate into eggs or sperm after embryonic ...

Genetic studies in mice have identified a molecular mechanism crucial to maintaining egg cells in a dormant state to ensure female fertility. This work by A*STAR identifies a potential method to prevent infertility when the ...

Researchers have shown that a recently identified protein, called Speedy A, plays an essential role in the early stages of meiosisa special type of cell division that produces sperm and egg cells.

Researchers have found a way to turn mouse embryonic stem cells into sperm. This finding, reported in the journal Cell in a special online release on August 4th, opens up new avenues for infertility research and treatment. ...

Scientists at the University of Cambridge working with the Weizmann Institute have created primordial germ cells - cells that will go on to become egg and sperm - using human embryonic stem cells. Although this had already ...

Male birds tend to be better singers than femalesbut does the basis for this difference lie in the brain or in the syrinx, the bird equivalent of our larynx? The researchers behind a new study from The Auk: Ornithological ...

Animals living in areas where conditions are ideal for their species have less chance of evolving to cope with climate change, new research suggests.

The arrangement of the photoreceptors in our eyes allows us to detect socially significant color variation better than other types of color vision, a team of researchers has found. Specifically, our color vision is superior ...

Using high magnification imaging, a team of researchers has identified several never before seen structures on bacteria that represent molecular machinery. The research is published this week in the Journal of Bacteriology, ...

UNC School of Medicine researchers have cracked a long-standing mystery about an important enzyme found in virtually all organisms other than bacteria. The basic science finding may have implications for understanding cancer ...

One of the main types of fossil used to understand the first flowering plants (angiosperms) are charred flowers. These charcoals were produced in ancient wildfires, and they provide some evidence for the types of plants that ...

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Regulatory protein ensures that egg precursor cells boost their numbers during embryonic development - Phys.Org

Cell Biology

Mitochondria behind blood cell formation – Phys.org – Phys.Org

June 13, 2017 Mitochondria are tiny, free-floating organelles inside cells. New Northwestern Medicine research has discovered that they play an important role in hematopoiesis, the bodys process for creating new blood cells. Credit: Northwestern University

New Northwestern Medicine research published in Nature Cell Biology has shown that mitochondria, traditionally known for their role creating energy in cells, also play an important role in hematopoiesis, the body's process for creating new blood cells.

"Historically, mitochondria are viewed as ATPenergyproducing organelles," explained principal investigator Navdeep Chandel, PhD, the David W. Cugell Professor of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. "Previously, my laboratory provided evidence that mitochondria can dictate cell function or fate independent of ATP production. We established the idea that mitochondria are signaling organelles."

In the current study, Chandel's team, including post-doctoral fellow Elena Ans, PhD, and graduate students Sam Weinberg and Lauren Diebold, demonstrated that mitochondria control hematopoietic stem cell fate by preventing the generation of a metabolite called 2-hydroxyglutarate (2HG). The scientists showed that mice with stem cells deficient in mitochondrial function cannot generate blood cells due to elevated levels of 2HG, which causes histone and DNA hyper-methylation.

"This is a great example of two laboratories complementing their expertise to work on a project," said Chandel, also a professor of Cell and Molecular Biology and a member of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University.

Paul Schumacker, PhD, professor of Pediatrics, Cell and Molecular Biology and Medicine, was also a co-author on the paper.

Chandel co-authored an accompanying paper in Nature Cell Biology, led by Jian Xu, PhD, at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, which demonstrated that initiation of erythropoiesis, the production of red blood cells specifically, requires functional mitochondria.

"These two studies collectively support the idea that metabolism dictates stem cell fate, which is a rapidly evolving subject matter," said Chandel, who recently wrote a review in Nature Cell Biology highlighting this idea. "An important implication of this work is that diseases linked to mitochondrial dysfunction like neurodegeneration or normal aging process might be due to elevation in metabolites like 2HG."

Explore further: Novel method enables absolute quantification of mitochondrial metabolites

More information: Elena Ans? et al. The mitochondrial respiratory chain is essential for haematopoietic stem cell function, Nature Cell Biology (2017). DOI: 10.1038/ncb3529

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