Red mitochondria in airway cells become coated with green SARS-COV-2 proteins after viral infection: Researchers discovered that the virus that causes COVID-19 damages lungs by attacking mitochondria.
(Stephen Archer)
COVID-19 causes lung injury and lowers oxygen levels in patients because the SARS-CoV-2 virus attacks cells’ mitochondria. This attack is a throwback to a primitive war between viruses and bacteria.
Red onion skin cells seen through a microscope.
Claudio Divizia/Shutterstock
Cell membranes are a basic structure common to most living organisms – but they can be hijacked.
The proteasome is a cellular machine that chews up misfolded and unwanted proteins, and can promote cell death, making it an interesting target for cancer treatment.
(Shutterstock)
Faulty cellular waste management machinery can lead to cancer and neurodegenerative diseases, but researchers are also targeting this machinery to treat these diseases.
Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg with Moshe Biton (right) and Aviv Regev (left). The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is one of the major funders of the Human Cell Atlas.
Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
Pioneered by the Human Cell Atlas consortium, our understanding of the human body is about to be transformed – and with it, the way we treat and prevent disease
It is possible to grow cells from a skin sample in a Petri dish and transform them into neurons in about a month.
(Camille Pernegre)
Healing is a complicated process. As people age, higher rates of disease and the fact that old cells lose the ability to divide slow this process down.
Fluorescent human cells seen through a microscope.
Our cells may be small, but they are mighty. And they are made of lots of amazing stuff, from the DNA that tells your body how to grow, to mini skeletons that let cells move around.
We wanted to find out which biological phenomena are crucial for pattern formation and which are just incidental. These sorts of questions can be answered with mathematical modelling.
Known as Mary Beale’s ‘Portrait of a Mathematician,’ could the circa 1680 painting depict Hooke?
Mary Beale
Online sleuthing and deductive reasoning identifies what appears to be the only existent portrait painted of the celebrated scientist during his lifetime.
Our brains communicate information in a manner that can be likened to an air traffic controller.
(Shutterstock)
Air traffic controllers have to process and manage large amounts of information to get airplanes to their destinations. The brain manages the incessant traffic of neurons in a similar fashion.
A molecule responsible for lowering our blood pressure also helps coronavirus get into our cells and replicate. And it occurs more in men than in women.
The relationship between the coronavirus and human genetics is murky.
fatido/E+ via Getty Images
Researchers from Oregon Health and Science University found that variations in genes that code for parts of the cellular alarm system might play a role in how well people fight off COVID-19.
Testing in cells is an important and exciting first step.
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Nevan Krogan, University of California, San Francisco
Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, identified nine existing drugs that show promise to treat COVID-19. The proteins they target haven’t been tried before.