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Originally published by James Gallagher at bbc.com, on November 20, 2024 An ambitious plan to map all 37 trillion cells in the human body is transforming understanding of how our bodies work, scientists report . The received wisdom said we were built from around 200 types of cell – such as heart muscle or nerve cells . Instead the Human Cell Atlas project has revealed there are thousands of cell types , with some appearing to be culprits in diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease and cystic fibrosis. In a flurry of announcements, the formation of the human skeleton and the early immune system have also been mapped out in detail. The novel insight is akin to moving from the maps of the 15th Century era of Joan of Arc and Richard III to what the phone in your pocket can load . The old maps of the body had the equivalent of major roads and significant geography but also areas cartographers labelled unknown or “ terra incognita ”. Read more  

  Originally published by Kamal Naha   A single-cell parasite relies on two genes that boost each other's activity to switch into "defense mode" when attacked by the immune system.   A new study could help scientists find a cure to lifelong infections caused by the parasite Toxoplasma gondii.   (Image credit: KATERYNA KON/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY via Getty Images)   The parasite Toxoplasma gondii hides in up to half of humans (opens in new tab) , although it rarely causes symptoms. But when it infects mice, the single-cell organism can exert a kind of "mind control" to change the rodents' behavior and help itself spread.  Now, researchers report being one step closer to curing T. gondii infections in humans, which can be lifelong due to the parasite's ability to morph into a dormant, defensive state. Two transcription factors — proteins that switch genes "on" and "off" — lie at the root of this metamorphosis, and the discovery...