Insights into cell movement likely to aid immune study, cancer research

Scientists at the School of Medicine have used yeast cells to better understand a collection of proteins associated with the formation of actin networks, which are essential to cell movement. The cell’s ability to move is important to a broad range of biomedical concerns, including understanding how immune system cells pursue disease-causing invaders and how metastasizing cancer cells migrate from a tumor.

Bacteria that cause urinary tract infections invade bladder cells

Scanning electron microscopy image of a filamentous bacterium from a patient with a UTIScientists at the School of Medicine have found definitive proof that some of the bacteria that plague women with urinary tract infections (UTIs) are entrenched inside human bladder cells. The finding confirms a controversial revision of scientists’ model of how bacteria cause UTIs. Previously, most researchers assumed that the bacteria responsible for infections get into the bladder but do not invade the individual cells that line the interior of the bladder.

WUSTL researchers spearhead key genome initiative

Twenty-eight-day-old *Physcomitrella* gametophyte showing the leafy gametophores in the center and the protonemal filaments radiating outward.The complete collection of genes — the genome — of a moss has been sequenced, providing scientists an important evolutionary link between single-celled algae and flowering plants. Just as the sequencing of animal genomes has helped scientists understand human genomic history, the sequencing of plant genomes will shed light on the evolution of the plant kingdom, according to Ralph S. Quatrano, Ph.D., the Spencer T. Olin Professor of Biology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis and the corresponding author of the paper.

Immune compound blocks virus’ ability to hijack antibodies

Researchers at the School of Medicine have shown that a controversial phenomenon known as antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE) of infection is suppressed by C1q, a blood-borne, immune system compound. Better understanding of ADE should help public health experts and clinicians working to control some viral disease outbreaks and aid efforts to design safe and effective vaccines.

Deadly virus strips away immune system’s defensive measures

When the alert goes out that a virus has invaded the body, cells that have yet to be attacked prepare by “armoring” themselves for combat, attaching specific antiviral molecules to many of their own proteins to help resist the invader. Scientists believe adding these molecules to cellular proteins, like putting on armor, changes the proteins in ways that make the cells resistant to the coming viral attack.

Washington University pediatrician to lead $11 million Gates Foundation grant

James Kemp will co-lead a campaign to prevent infant death due to unsafe sleep practices with funding from an $11 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Kemp is a professor of pediatrics at the School of Medicine and a pediatrician at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. The grant, awarded to Baltimore-based First Candle, a nonprofit organization promoting infant health, will support a national campaign called “Bedtime Basics for Babies.”

Children with sickle cell disease and silent strokes show some relief with blood transfusion therapy

A group of children who have sickle cell disease and who experience silent strokes showed some relief from the silent strokes with blood transfusion therapy, researchers at the School of Medicine have found. The study’s results will appear in a future issue of Pediatric Blood and Cancer but are available for review in its advance online publication.

Cognitive “fog” of normal aging linked to brain system disruption

Researchers concentrated on large-scale connections between frontal and posterior brain regions that are associated with high-level cognitive functions such as learning and remembering.Comparisons of the brains of young and old people have revealed that normal aging may cause cognitive decline due to deterioration of the connections among large-scale brain systems, including a decrease in the integrity of the brain’s “white matter,” the tissue containing nerve cells that carry information, according to a new study co-authored by several researchers from Washington University in St. Louis.
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