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Originally written by Torsten Lauer Central Institute of Mental Health , published in Medicalexpress.com on November 28, 202 Edited by Sadie Harley , reviewed by Robert Egan     Graphical abstract. Credit: Cell Reports (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2025.116599 Researchers around the world are studying how the human brain achieves its extraordinary complexity. A team at the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim and the German Primate Center—Leibniz Institute for Primate Research in Göttingen has now used organoids to show that the ARHGAP11A gene plays a crucial role in brain development . If this gene is missing, key processes involved in cell division and structure become unbalanced. The human brain distinguishes us from other living beings like no other organ. It enables language, abstract thinking, complex social behavior, and culture. But how can this extraordinarily powerful organ develop, and how is it ensured that nerve cells and supporting cells for...

MIT engineers find cells hold gene expression on a spectrum, reshaping ideas about cell identity and disease. Originally published by   Aamir Khollam in interestingengineering.com, on  Sep 09, 2025  Epigenetic memory illlstrations MIT engineers have challenged a core idea in biology by showing that epigenetic memory is not simply binary . Their research reveals cells don’t just lock genes in an “on” or “off” state . Instead, they can freeze expression at many points along a spectrum , opening new questions about how cells define their identity. For decades, scientists believed DNA methylation fixed genes in permanent on or off states . This process enables cells to “remember” who they are and prevents, for example, a skin cell from morphing into a neuron. Domitilla Del Vecchio, professor of mechanical and biological engineering at MIT , said her team saw something unexpected. “The textbook understanding was that DNA methylation had a role to lock genes in either...

Originally published by Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne on September 9, 2024 Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Every cell in our body contains the same DNA , yet liver cells are different from brain cells , and skin cells differ from muscle cells . What determines these differences? It all comes down to gene regulation ; essentially how and when genes are turned on and off to meet the cell's demands. But gene regulation is quite complex , especially because it is itself regulated by other parts of DNA . There are t wo important components that control gene regulation : the first are enhancers , which are short bits of DNA that increase the likelihood that a gene will be activated—even if that gene is far away from the enhancer on the genome. The second are specialized proteins , generally referred to as " transcription factors " ( TFs ), which bind to enhancers and, put crudely, control gene expression by "flipping" the genes' on/off swit...

Originally published by by Rose Miyatsu, University of California - Santa Cruz , on May 11, 2024 Shown is the splicing pathway. The pre-messenger RNA (pre-mRNA) has exons (blue) and introns (pink). The spliceosome (not shown) was known to catalyze two chemical reactions (black arrows) in a two-step process (green arrows labeled 1 and 2) that splice the exons together and removes the intron as a lariat. This study demonstrates that after splicing is finished, the spliceosome is still active and can convert the lariat intron into a circle using a third reaction (green arrow 3) marked by an asterix. Credit: Manuel Ares, UC Santa Cruz Although you may not appreciate them, or have even heard of them, throughout your body , countless microscopic machines called spliceosomes are hard at work . As you sit and read, they are faithfully and rapidly putting back together the broken information in your genes by removing sequences called " introns " so that your messenger RNAs can...