What Is Cell Biology?

Cell biology is the subdiscipline of biology that studies the basic unit of life, the cell. It deals with all aspects of the cell including cell anatomy, cell division (mitosis and meiosis), and cell processes includingcell respiration, and cell death. Cell biology does not stand alone as a discipline but is closely related to other areas of biology such as genetics, molecular biology, and biochemistry.

Based on one of the basic principles of biology, the cell theory, the study of cells would not have been possible without the invention of the microscope. With the advanced microscopes of today, such as the Scanning Electron Microscope and Transmission Electron Microscope, cell biologists are able to obtain detailed images of the smallest of cell structures and organelles.

All living organisms are composed of cells. Some organisms are comprised of cells that number in the trillions. There are two primary types of cells: eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells. Eukaryotic cells have a defined nucleus, while the prokaryotic nucleus is not defined or contained within a membrane. While all organisms are composed of cells, these cells differ among organisms. Some of these differing characteristics include cell structure, size, shape, and organelle content. For example, animal cells, bacterial cells, and plant cells have similarities, but they are also noticeably different.

Cells have different methods of reproduction. Some of these methods include: binary fission, mitosis, and meiosis. Cells house an organisms genetic material (DNA), which provides instructions for all cellular activity.

Cell movement is necessary for a number of cell functions to occur.

Some of these functions include cell division, cell shape determination, fighting off infectious agents and tissue repair. Internal cell movement is needed to transport substances into and out of a cell, as well as to move organelles during cell division.

Study in the field of cell biology can lead to various career paths. Many cell biologists are research scientists who work in industrial or academic laboratories. Other opportunities include:

There have been several significant events throughout history that have led to the development of the field of cell biology as it exists today. Below are a few of these major events:

The human body has a multitude of different types of cells. These cells differ in structure and function and are suited for the roles they fulfill in the body. Examples of cells in the body include: stem cells, sex cells, blood cells, fat cells and cancer cells.

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Cell Biology - thoughtco.com

March 16, 2017 at 12:18 PM

Cells infected by the deadly Ebola virus may release viral proteins such as VP40 packaged in exosomes, which, as new research indicates, can affect immune cells throughout the body impairing their ability to combat the infection and to seek out and destroy hidden virus. The potential for exosomal VP40 to have a substantial impact on Ebola virus disease is examined in a review article 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 until April 13, 2017.

In the article entitled "The Role of Exosomal VP40 in Ebola Virus Disease," Michelle Pleet, Catherine DeMarino, and Fatha Kashanchi, George Mason University, Benjamin Lepene, Ceres Nanosciences, Manassas, VA, and M. Javad Aman, Integrated BioTherapeutics, Gaithersburg, MD, discuss the latest research on the effects of the Ebola VP40 matrix protein on the immune system. The authors suggest that in addition to VP40, additional viral proteins may also be packaged in the membrane-bound exosomal vesicles, intensifying the damaging effects on immune cells.

"Starting in December 2013, Ebola re-emerged in Western Africa and devastated the population of three countries, prompting an international response of physicians and of basic and translational scientists. This epidemic led to the development of new vaccines, therapeutics, and insights into disease pathogenesis and epidemiology," 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. "This paper from Pleet and colleagues is important because it shows that Ebola-infected cells secrete small bits of cytoplasm inside membranes, which contain Ebola viral proteins that can damage neighboring and distant host cells."

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Research shows how Ebola viral proteins packaged in exosomes affect immune cells - News-Medical.net

Biochemists have seen the light in developing a new way to control biology at the cellular level.

Researchers at the University of Alberta have developed a tool called a photocleavable protein that breaks into two pieces when exposed to light, allowing scientists to study and manipulate activity inside cells in new and different ways.

The scientists first used the photocleavable protein to link cellular proteins to inhibitors in a process known as caging, preventing the cellular proteins from performing their usual function.

"By shining light into the cell, we can cause the photocleavable protein to break, removing the inhibitor and uncaging the protein within the cell," lead author Robert Campbell, professor in the Department of Chemistry, said in a statement.

Once the protein is uncaged, it can begin to perform its normal function inside the cell.

The tool is relatively easy to use and widely applicable for other research that involves controlling processes inside a cell.

According to Campbell, the power of light-sensitive proteins is that they can be used to study the inner workings of any living cell. For example, ontogenetic tools are widely used to activate brain activity in mice.

"We could use the photocleavable protein to study single bacteria, yeast, human cells in the lab or even whole animals such as zebrafish or mice," Campbell said. "To put these proteins inside an animal, we simply splice the gene for the protein into DNA and insert it into the cells using established techniques."

The research team is making the gene for the photocleavable on Addgenea global archive and depository of molecular biology resources.

"We want to provide new ways to learn about cell biology," Campbell said. "I see countless potential applications for research and future investigationfrom looking at which cells become which tissues in development biology, to investigating the possibilities of gene-editing technology."

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Light Offers New Way to Control Cell Biology - R & D Magazine

March 17, 2017 A UT Southwestern study determined that the metabolite uridine helps the body regulate glucose. This graphic depicts how the bodys fat cell-liver-uridine axis works to maintain energy balance. Credit: UT Southwestern Medical Center

How do mammals keep two biologically crucial metabolites in balance during times when they are feeding, sleeping, and fasting? The answer may require rewriting some textbooks.

In a study published today in Science, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers report that fat cells "have the liver's back," so to speak, to maintain tight regulation of glucose (blood sugar) and uridine, a metabolite the body uses in a range of fundamental processes such as building RNA molecules, properly making proteins, and storing glucose as energy reserves. Their study may have implications for several diseases, including diabetes, cancer, and neurological disorders.

Metabolites are substances produced by a metabolic process, such as glucose generated in the metabolism of complex sugars and starches, or amino acids used in the biosynthesis of proteins.

"Like glucose, every cell in the body needs uridine to stay alive. Glucose is needed for energy, particularly in the brain's neurons. Uridine is a basic building block for a lot of things inside the cell," said Dr. Philipp Scherer, senior author of the study and Director of UT Southwestern's Touchstone Center for Diabetes Research.

"Biology textbooks indicate that the liver produces uridine for the circulatory system," said Dr. Scherer, also Professor of Internal Medicine and Cell Biology. "But what we found is that the liver serves as the primary producer of this metabolite only in the fed state. In the fasted state, the body's fat cells take over the production of uridine."

Basically, this method of uridine production can be viewed as a division of labor. Researchers found that during fasting, the liver is busy producing glucose and so fat cells take over the role of producing uridine for the bloodstream. These findings were replicated in human, mouse, and rat studies.

Although uridine has many roles, this study is the first to report that fat cells produce plasma uridine during fasting and that a fat cell-liver-uridine axis regulates the body's energy balance.

Study lead author Dr. Yingfeng Deng, Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine, found that blood uridine levels go up during fasting and down when feeding. During feeding, the liver reduces uridine levels by secreting uridine into bile, which is transferred to the gallbladder and then sent to the gut, where it helps in the absorption of nutrients.

"It turns out that having uridine in your gut helps you absorb glucose; therefore uridine helps in glucose regulation," Dr. Scherer said.

The uridine in the blood works through the hypothalamus in the brain to affect another tightly regulated system body temperature, Dr. Scherer added. It appears that only uridine made by fat cells reduces body temperature, he said.

Among the study's other key findings:

Blood uridine levels are elevated during fasting and drop rapidly during feeding. Excess uridine is released through the bile.

The liver is the predominant uridine biosynthesis organ, contributing to blood uridine levels in the fed state.

The fat cells dominate uridine biosynthesis and blood levels in the fasted state.

The fasting-induced rise in uridine is linked to a drop in core body temperature driven by a reduction in the metabolic rate.

In dietary studies, the researchers found that prolonged exposure to a high-fat diet blunted the effects of fasting on lowering body temperature, an effect also associated with obesity. Further testing indicated those findings were due to the reduced elevation in uridine in response to fasting, said Dr. Deng, also a member of the Touchstone Diabetes Center.

Future research questions include studying the effects of feeding-induced reductions in uridine levels in organs that rely heavily on uridine from plasma, such as the heart, and whether bariatric surgery affects blood uridine levels.

"Our studies reveal a direct link between temperature regulation and metabolism, indicating that a uridine-centered model of energy balance may pave the way for future studies on uridine balance and how this process is dysregulated in the diabetic state," Dr. Scherer said.

Explore further: Size matters when it comes to keeping blood sugar levels in check

More information: Yingfeng Deng et al. An adipo-biliary-uridine axis that regulates energy homeostasis, Science (2017). DOI: 10.1126/science.aaf5375

How do mammals keep two biologically crucial metabolites in balance during times when they are feeding, sleeping, and fasting? The answer may require rewriting some textbooks.

Daily screen time of three or more hours is linked to several risk factors associated with the development of diabetes in children, finds research published online in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.

Jason Dyck has long believed in the beneficial properties of resveratrola powerful antioxidant produced by some plants to protect against environmental stresses. The professor of pediatrics at the University of Alberta ...

The age at which girls start menstruating could flag a later risk of diabetes during pregnancy, according to a University of Queensland study

Short bursts of high-intensity exercise could help people with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease reduce their risk of type 2 diabetes.

A diet designed to imitate the effects of fasting appears to reverse diabetes by reprogramming cells, a new USC-led study shows.

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Fat cells step in to help liver during fasting - Medical Xpress

Inside a bony structure that spirals like a snail shell in a humans inner ear, roughly 15,000 hair cells receive, translate, and then ship sound signals to the brain. Damage to these cells from excessive noise, chronic infections, antibiotics, certain drugs, or the simple passing of time can lead to irreparable hearing loss.

Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers at Brigham and Womens Hospital (BWH) and Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and colleagues from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed an approach to replace damaged sound-sensing hair cells, which eventually may lead to therapies for people who live with disabling hearing loss.

In a recent Cell Reports study, the researchers identified a small molecule cocktail that increased the population of cells responsible for generating hair cells in the inner ear. Unlike hair on the human head, the hair cells lining that bony structure, called the cochlea, do not regenerate.

HSCI principal faculty Jeff Karp, HSCI affiliate faculty Albert Edge, and MITs Robert Langer were co-corresponding authors of the study. Will McLean, a postdoctoral fellow in the Edge lab, and Xiaolei Yin, an instructor in medicine at BWH, were co-first authors.

In 2012, Edge and colleagues identified a population of stem cells, characterized by an Lgr5+ marker, which scientists could turn into hair cells in a dish. A year later, Edge had converted the resident population of these cells in mice into hair cells, though the ability to restore hearing using this approach has been limited.

The problem is the cochlea is so small and there are so few cells that it creates a bottleneck limiting the number and types of experiments researchers could perform, said Edge, director of the Tillotson Cell Biology Unit at Mass. Eye and Ear and a professor of otolaryngology at Harvard Medical School (HMS).

However, by exposing Lgr5+ cells isolated from the cochlea of mice to the small molecule cocktail, the researchers were able to create a 2,000-fold increase in the number of stem cells.

Those molecules were a key to unlocking this regenerative capability, said Karp, who is also a bioengineer at BWH and an associate professor of medicine at HMS.

Inspired by creatures with significant regenerative potential, including lizards and sharks, Karps lab initially turned to one of the bodys most highly regenerative tissues, the gastrointestinal lining, which completely replaces itself every four to five days. Central to this process is the paneth cell, neighbor to the intestinal stem cells that are responsible for generating all mature cell types in the intestine. The paneth cells effectively tell the stem cells, also characterized by their Lgr5+ markers, when to turn on and off.

Karp and his colleagues at MIT looked at the basic biology of the ties between paneth cells and intestinal stem cells and identified small molecules that could communicate directly with and control the Lgr5+ stem cells.

While we were developing the approach for the intestinal cells, we demonstrated it also worked in several other tissues with the Lgr5+ stem cells and progenitors, including the inner ear, Karp said.

When the researchers coupled the cocktail with established differentiation protocols, they were able to generate large quantities of functional hair cells in a petri dish. Using protocols from the Edge lab, the researchers then thoroughly characterized the differentiated cells to demonstrate they were functional hair cells. Researchers tested the cocktail on newborn mice, adult mice, non-human primates, and cells from a human cochlea.

We can now use these cells for drug screening as well as genetic analysis, Edge said. Our lab is using the cells to better understand the pathways for expansion and differentiation of the cells.

Additionally, the small molecule cocktail may also be turned into a therapeutic treatment. Karp has co-founded Frequency Therapeutics, which plans to use insights from these studies to develop treatments for hearing loss. The team hopes to begin human clinical testing within 18 months.

Not only is it a potential therapeutic that could be relevant for the restoration of hearing, but this approach is a platform, said Karp. The concept of targeting stem cells and progenitor cells in the body with small molecules to promote tissue regeneration can be applied to many tissues and organ systems.

By Alvin Powell, Harvard Staff Writer | March 15, 2017

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Progress in treating hearing loss - Harvard Gazette

March 10, 2017 at 1:38 PM

Recent study out of the University of Ottawa opens door for new disease therapies in cancer, ALS, Fragile X Syndrome and others.

Part of what makes cancer cells so devastating is their ability to fight back against treatments -- sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. But what if we could take away cancer cells' defences altogether?

Researchers from the University of Ottawa have taken an important step forward to doing just that. Dr. Kristin Baetz says the results of a three-way research collaboration could open doors to new therapeutics to treat a variety of diseases, including cancer.

Dr. Baetz is an associate professor at uOttawa's Faculty of Medicine and Director of the Ottawa Institute of Systems Biology. Her lab studies stress granules (SGs), which are structures produced by the body's cells to protect against environmental stressors. Unfortunately, SGs also help cancer cells defend themselves against chemotherapeutic treatments, which can then lead to resistance to the common therapy.

"The first step in figuring out how to prevent this from happening is to understand how stress granules are formed and disassembled," explains Dr. Baetz, "and we now have key information."

Using yeast cells, her lab has identified a class of enzymes that play an active role in regulating SG formation. Deactivating this class of enzyme has a direct correlation to lowering SG levels.

Yeast cells are a highly relevant source of information about human cells as they mimic human cell biology.

"On the surface we may be very different, but at the cellular level humans and yeast are very much the same," says Dr. Baetz. "Given that similarity, our research is of direct relevance to human cancer biology, and metabolic and neurodegenerative diseases."

The findings come at an opportune time, when a new group of drugs are being developed against these enzymes. When administered to the yeast cells, Dr. Baetz found, the new drugs were successful in lowering SG production.

Through collaboration with labs of mammalian cell biologists and cancer specialists, the team applied their findings from yeast cells to a breast cancer cell line -- and again showed the drugs had the effect of reducing SGs.

"We've discovered one way to decrease stress granule formation, plus we have therapeutics -- so we're well positioned to explore how this strategy might work on diseases," Dr. Baetz says.

The research collaboration between the three labs has led to a paper being published in PLOS Genetics. The paper highlights the research efforts of the labs of Dr. Baetz, professor Jocelyn Ct, and assistant professor Morgan Fullerton, all of uOttawa's Faculty of Medicine.

Dr. Baetz anticipates her team's work may lead to many new avenues of research, and is optimistic with regards to the fight to disarm the warriors that are cancer cells.

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Researchers take important step forward in disabling cancer cells ... - News-Medical.net

March 10, 2017 at 7:49 PM

The intestine has a high rate of cellular regeneration due to the wear and tear originated by its function degrading and absorbing nutrients and eliminating waste. The entire cell wall is renewed once a week approximately. This explains why the intestine holds a large number of stem cells in constant division, thereby producing new cell populations of the various types present in this organ.

Researchers at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) headed by ICREA investigator Eduard Batlle, head of the Colorectal Cancer Laboratory, have discovered a new group of intestinal stem cells with very different characteristics to those of the abundant and active stem cells already known in this organ. Performed in collaboration with the Centro Nacional de Anlisis Genmico (CNAG-CRG), the study has been published in Cell Stem Cell. These new group of stem cells are quiescent, that is to say, they do not proliferate and are apparently dormant.

The researchers describe them as a reservoir of stem cells--it is estimated that there is one quiescent cell for every 10 active intestinal stem cells. In healthy conditions, these cells have no apparent relevant function. However, they are important in situations of stress, , for example, after chemotherapy, in inflammatory processes, and in tissue infections--all conditions in which the population of "normal/active" stem cells is depleted. These quiescent cells would serve to regenerate the organ by giving rise to the various types of cells present in the intestine, renewing the population of "normal/active" stem cells, and restoring balance to the tissue.

Eduard Batlle explains that the discovery of quiescent stem cells in the intestine reveals that stem cell biology is more complex that previously appreciated and that it does not follow ahierarchical model of cell organisation. "In intestinal cell hierarchy, there are no cells above others, so the two populations are in a continual balance to ensure the proper function of the organ".

Most drugs against cancer have a secondary effect on the cells that are dividing in our tissues. "Because quiescent stem cells divide infrequently, they are resistant to many types of chemotherapy and they regenerate the tissue that this treatment has damaged," explains Eduard Batlle, head of one of the labs of international prestige in research into intestinal stem cells and their involvement in colorectal cancer.

Quiescent cells are present in many kinds of tissue. However, in spite of their relevance in tissue regeneration, increasing evidence points to their involvement in tumour development. "It is difficult to study these cells, mainly because they are scarce and there are technical limitations with respect to monitoring, straining and distinguishing them from the others," explains Francisco Barriga, first author of the study and current postdoctoral fellow at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

Using advanced techniques, such as genetic tracing of cell lineages and transcriptomic analysis of individual cells, performed by CNAG-CRG and the Bioinformatics and Biostatistics Unit at IRB Barcelona, the group has identified the distinct genetic programme used by quiescent stem cells with respect to normal intestinal ones. This work has been done over six years.

The researchers have labelled this cell population with a specific marker, the Mex3a protein, which has allowed them to track it over time. "We intend to continue studying quiescent stem cells in health and disease and to discover the function of the genes that distinguish them in the colon and in other organs," says Batlle.

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Researchers discover intestinal quiescent stem cells that are resistant to chemotherapy - News-Medical.net

ST. LOUIS, March 9, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --There are many mysteries unfolding every second at the cellular level inside the human body, and the board game scientists at Genius Games want to help you unravel them in their latest hard-science based strategy game, Cytosis: A Cell Biology Game. It is the first game in the world to be designed totally around the actual structure and dynamics of the human cell, and promises a vividly visual, tactile, and interactive tour of this essential building block of life.

The creators of award-winning biology and chemistry games (as well as children's books) will take players inside a human cell in Cytosis: A Cell Biology Game, where they will compete to build enzymes, hormones and receptors and fend off attacking Viruses! In 2016,Cytosis: A Cell Biology Gamewas the highest rated game during the prestigious Stonemaier Game Design Day, a day dedicated to play-testing prototypes, game design and idea exchange within the gaming community.

Well-known inside the scientific, teaching and gaming communities, the company is thrilled to announce their upcoming Kickstarter campaign for Cytosis: A Cell Biology Game, the latest addition to its growing product portfolio of games that have been heralded by both the gaming and scientific communities. In the company's latest board game, science becomes fun and learning becomes addictive when taught by the team at Genius Games. The company has had six other successful crowdfunded projects come to market. The Kickstarter campaign for Cytosis: A Cell Biology Game aims to raise $14,500. Donors pledging $39 or more will receive a copy of the game. Find more details on Cytosis: A Cell Biology Game here, and to reserve a copy, click the "Support This Project" button.

"We are excited to return to Kickstarter to seek funding for our latest board game venture, Cytosis: A Cell Biology Game. People familiar with our other products will find the same level of quality and creativity that they've come to expect from us," noted John Coveyou, founder and director of Genius Games. "Traditionally games are only meant for entertainment and school is where you go to learn. At Genius Games we have always felt that you can make learning fun. That is our mission, to develop games that are not only a blast to play, but that also simultaneously demystify intimidating science concepts. And for a cool behind-the-scenes look into the design, and launch of the game on Kickstarter, check out my new YouTube documentary series, A Kickstarter Launch Story."

"Cytosis is a really well-designed hard science game. The worker placement works extremely well Great game!," raved Paul Salomon, an expert Board Game Geek reviewer.

In Cytosis: A Cell Biology Game, players compete to build enzymes, hormones and receptors to fend off attacking viruses inside a human cell. The player with the most Health Points at the end of the game wins!

Players utilize the available organelles within the cell to collect cellular resources such as mRNA from the Nucleus, Lipids from the Smooth E.R., ATP from the Mitochondria, or transport Carbohydrates into the cell via endocytosis through the Plasma Membrane.Players may also utilize the organelles to Translate mRNA into Proteins (either on the Free Ribosome in the Cytoplasm, or in the Rough E.R) or add glucose or lipid tags to their hormonesor hormone receptors in the Golgi Apparatus.Players score health points when they complete any of the Hormone, Receptors or Enzyme cards. For 2-5 players, ages 10 and up. The game will be available nationwide in August for $44.99 MSRP.

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About Genius GamesSt. Louis, Missouri based Genius Games was founded by John Coveyou in 2014. Genius Games is a game design company that publishes high-quality tabletop games that are both entertaining and educational. For more information, please visit https://gotgeniusgames.com/.

About John CoveyouJohn Coveyou, creator and designer of Cytosis: A Cell Biology Game, nearly dropped out of school in his teen years and spent a stint living out of his car. However, after serving in the military, he pursued his love of science at Washington University, earning his Masters in Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering. He later quit his posh engineering job to launch Genius Games in 2014. He now teaches courses on Game Design and Crowdfunding at Webster University in St. Louis along with running Genius Games full time.

Cytosis is the sixth science-based game created by Coveyou. His previous Kickstarter campaigns were wildly successful! Coveyou also published My FirstScience Textbooks and Science Wide Open, science storybooks for kids, which are still the fourth and sixth most funded children's book campaign to date on Kickstarter.

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/want-to-play-inside-a-human-cell-genius-games-to-launch-a-kickstarter-campaign-that-will-let-you-300420868.html

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Want To Play Inside A Human Cell? Genius Games To Launch A Kickstarter Campaign That Will Let You - Yahoo Finance

Bacteria and antibiotics have been in an arms race since the drugs were invented. But for economic reasons, fewer and fewer of these drugs are being developed today, while the fear of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is ever-growing. This, and the potential threat of a bioterror attack, where say an epidemic-causing bacteria is released into the general population, makes the need for countermeasures obvious. Johns Hopkins researchers have come up with a new way to eliminate dangerous bacteria, using beefed up cells who seek out and destroy dangerous pathogens, all on their own.

Researchers from the John Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering and the School of Medicine teamed up on this four-year project. They received a grant of $5.7 million, awarded by the federal agency DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). The point of the study is to create a biocontrol system that can send out single-cell enforcers to find and eliminate certain pathogens. Researchers will program amoeba cells to do so, each one micron long, about one-tenth the width of a human hair.

These amoeba are independent and travel on their own surfaces--meaning they can get potentially deadly pathogens wherever they may be. In the event they are needed, they would be emitted through a spray. As a first step, scientists hope to program the cells to go after the bacteria which causes Legionnaires disease.

It could also be used to target Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a dangerous, potentially deadly, treatment-resistant strain of pneumonia. In another scenario, specially engineered amoeba cells are unleashed by health officials if an outbreak occurs. There are other uses too. They could sterilize instruments, and studying them may even reap benefits for cancer research.

So whats DARPAs interest? These biochemical warriors may someday help dampen down or even counteract a bioterror attack. They could also be used to render contaminated soil harmless. The innovation here is that each cellular soldier is self-directed. It does not depend on an outside human operator. Principal investigator Pablo A. Iglesias likened it to a self-driving car. Iglesias is a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Johns Hopkins.

Amoebas.By C.G. Ehrenberg (Die Infusionthierchen, 1830) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Just as cruise control slows down or speeds up a car, Iglesias said, In a similar way, the biocontrol systems were developing must be able to sense where the pathogens are, move their cells toward the bacterial targets, and then engulf them to prevent infections among people who might otherwise be exposed to the harmful microbes.

Iglesias started looking into biocontrol systems 15 years ago. To develop this particular type of synthetic biology, he is teaming up with four colleagues at the school of medicine. Each is a biological chemistry expert. Douglas N. Robinson, a professor of cell biology is on the team. He likened what these amoebas do to bacteria to what humans do when they encounter freshly baked cookies. They seek to gorge themselves unabashedly.

Though the technique has a lot of potential, Iglesias admitted to the Baltimore Sun, that past experiments in the field havent actually gone very well. "People manage to do things but it takes huge amounts of effort and it's more or less random, he said. There has to be a lot of iterations before it works." Other experts say, this teams efforts are heartening, particularly due to the growing menace of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Researchers are using amoeba cells called Dictyostelium discoideum in their experiments. This species is commonly studied. It can be found in the damp soil of riverbeds. These microbes surround bacteria and devour them. Turns out the bacteria let off a biochemical scent that the amoeba, using a specific type of receptor, pick up.

Robinson said that their experiments must adhere to the strictest operating protocols, lest such amoeba escape into the environment and wreak havoc. If this project bears fruit, researchers believe theyll have a new tool to fight infection in hospitals, and protect society against bioterror and ecological disasters. So far, scientists are targeting only pathogens lurking outside the human body. In this contract, we are not targeting bacteria in human blood, Iglesias said. But the hope is that the techniques we develop would ultimately be useful for that.

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Researchers Engineer Enforcer Cells That Will Take out Lethal Bacteria - Big Think

March 8, 2017 (a) Proteins (green) can be endogenously expressed and isotopically labelled in bacteria (b) Exogenous proteins (blue) can be delivered to X. Credit: Enrico Luchinat and Lucia Banci

The structure of biological macromolecules is critical to understanding their function, mode of interaction and relationship with their neighbours, and how physiological processes are altered by mutations or changes in the molecular environment.

Ideally, classical structural biology research should interface more with cellular biology, as it is crucial for the structural data obtained in vitro to be validated within the cellular or tissue context. A true cellular structural biology approach should allow macromolecules to be characterised directly in their native environment. Such an approach would guarantee the high significance of data obtained in vivo or in the cell with the high resolution of a structural technique.

In the Past decade, NMR spectroscopy has been applied to obtain structural and functional information on biological macromolecules inside intact, living cells. The approach, termed "in-cell NMR", utilises the improved resolution and sensitivity of modern high-field NMR spectrometers and exploits selective enrichment of the molecule(s) of interest with NMR-active isotopes.

Since its inception, in-cell NMR has gradually emerged as a possible link between structural and cellular approaches. Being especially suited to investigate the structure and dynamics of macromolecules at atomic resolution, in-cell NMR can fill a critical gap between in vitro-oriented structural techniques such as NMR spectroscopy, X-ray crystallography and single-particle cryo-EM techniques and ultrahigh-resolution cellular imaging techniques, such as cryo-electron tomography.

In a topical review IUCrJ (2017), 4, 108-118 Lucia Banci and her co-worker Enrico Luchinat , both based at the University of Florence, summarise the major advances of in-cell NMR and report the recent developments in the field, with particular focus on its application for studying proteins in eukaryotic and mammalian cells and on the development of cellular solid-state NMR.

Explore further: Catching a glimpse at enzymes on the job

More information: Enrico Luchinat et al, In-cell NMR: a topical review, IUCrJ (2017). DOI: 10.1107/S2052252516020625

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In-cell NMR: A new application - Phys.Org