Topic description and stories

Graphic showing humans and cells

Cartographers of the human body: the Human Cell Atlas

20 Nov 2024

The Human Cell Atlas is an ambitious project to map every cell in the human body. Its co-lead, Professor Sarah Teichmann, explains how the initiative...

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Developing immune cells (B cells) from prenatal gut tissue

Immune cell characteristics mapped across multiple tissues

13 May 2022

Previously underexplored immune cell populations have been genetically mapped across multiple tissues to provide new insights into how our immune...

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HeLa: the cells that changed science

25 Feb 2021

Discover the incredible story of Henrietta Lacks, an African American woman whose cells enabled a scientific revolution and contributed to numerous...

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Mathematics explains how giant ‘whirlpools’ form in developing egg cells

13 Jan 2021

The swirling currents occur when the rodlike structures that extend inward from the cells’ membranes bend in tandem, like stalks of wheat caught in a...

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Inducing lysosome motion with light leads to a rapid and significant extension of ER network.

Driving force behind cellular ‘protein factories’ could have implications for neurodegenerative disease

16 Dec 2020

Researchers have identified the driving force behind a cellular process linked to neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s and motor neurone...

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DBScan analysis being performed a mature neuron in a typical vLUME workspace.

New virtual reality software allows scientists to ‘walk’ inside cells

12 Oct 2020

Virtual reality software which allows researchers to ‘walk’ inside and analyse individual cells could be used to understand fundamental problems in...

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Women in STEM: Dr Stephanie Höhn

14 Nov 2019

Dr Stephanie Höhn is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, and a member of Trinity Hall. Here...

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Three mitochondria surrounded by cytoplasm

Interplay between mitochondria and the nucleus may have implications for changing cell’s ‘batteries’

23 May 2019

Mitochondria, the ‘batteries’ that produce our energy, interact with the cell’s nucleus in subtle ways previously unseen in humans, according to...

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Vanishing point

‘Glue’ that makes plant cell walls strong could hold the key to wooden skyscrapers

21 Dec 2016

Molecules 10,000 times narrower than the width of a human hair could hold the key to making possible wooden skyscrapers and more energy-efficient...

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Metabolic cooperation in a social Baker’s yeast community. Pictured is a two-day old yeast community that grows as a colony. Different colours indicate cells producing and consuming different metabolites and nutrients.

Social yeast cells prefer to work with close relatives to make our beer, bread & wine

26 Oct 2015

Baker’s yeast cells living together in communities help feed each other, but leave incomers from the same species to die from starvation, according...

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Plant cells twisting and weaving in 3-D cultures

Cells cling and spiral ‘like vines’ in first 3D tissue scaffold for plants

26 Aug 2015

New cost-effective material which mimics natural ‘extracellular matrix’ has allowed scientists to capture previously unseen behaviour in individual...

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Cell nucleus before and after treatment with Remodelin

'Remodelling' damaged nuclei could lead to new treatments for accelerated ageing disease

01 May 2014

Scientists at the University of Cambridge have identified a key chemical that can repair the damage to cells which causes a rare but devastating...

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