Great British Bioscience

Signal may send cancer’s cellular factories into overdrive

A network of signals active in almost all types of cancer sends the protein factories in our cells into overdrive, and may help fuel a tumour’s uncontrolled growth, new research suggests.

Scientists at The Institute of Cancer Research, one of the world’s most influential cancer research institutes, identified a molecular trigger responsible for ramping up activity of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) – the cellular factory that makes the building blocks cancer cells need to keep growing.

The findings may help to explain how cancer cells maintain their high levels of metabolism – and could uncover future targets for cancer treatment

The top three images show human hepatocarcinoma cells with the endoplasmic reticulum (blue) and nucleus (red). Copyright: Dr Chris Bakal, The Institute of Cancer Research, London.

The bottom image shows human epithelial cells from breast tissue treated with Torin, an inhibitor of TOR kinase, where the endoplasmic reticulum is (green), nuclei (red) and F-actin (grey) Copyright: Dr Chris Bakal, The Institute of Cancer Research, London.

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Scientists go fishing for proteins
Professor Neil Hunter FRS and Dr Matt Johnson, together with a BBSRC-funded team from the University of Sheffield have made a breakthrough in our understanding of how plants turn sunlight into food, by mapping the... — **Scientists go fishing for proteins**
Professor Neil Hunter FRS and Dr Matt Johnson, together with a BBSRC-funded team from the University of Sheffield have made a **breakthrough** in our understanding of how plants turn sunlight into food, by mapping the organisation of a crucial protein complex known as cytochrome b6f. This has been done in the photosynthetic membrane of the plant cell chloroplast.
The team have developed a new imaging technique known as affinity mapping atomic force microscopy to pinpoint the location of cytochrome b6f relative to the chlorophyll-protein complex photosystem II. Locating a protein in a membrane is ordinarily a bit tricky, as they all often look quite similar. But Matt and his team have used this novel technique that involves attaching a molecule known as plastocyanin (blue) to the AFM tip (grey) and using this as ‘bait’ to ‘fish’ for the cytochrome b₆f (fuschia), to which it binds with near 100% accuracy. This allows the topographic features of the membrane that are revealed in AFM image to be assigned to particular proteins based on whether they bind to the molecular bait.
Understanding the organisation of the molecular machinery of photosynthesis takes us a step closer to unravelling nature’s staggeringly successful blueprint for solar energy capture and conversion. Such fundamental research into photosynthesis is a first step towards harnessing the power of the sun to meet future energy needs.
This new technique could be used to locate other proteins in any biological membrane including in, plants, bacteria, and even humans, information that could be crucial to understanding how defective proteins can cause disease.
Image credit: University of Sheffield
Read more
See more great science images: http://tmblr.co/ZtJ7bq1KpKUnI

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After a gruelling judge’s shortlist and a nation-wide public vote, BBSRC’s Images with Impact category winners and runners-up have been selected.

These three images will now go head-to-head at the Great British Bioscience Festival, where the public will vote for the overall winner – with a total prize of £1000.

Read more about science behind the images: http://bit.ly/1t8rXAq

Find out more about the free Great British Bioscience Festival which will be held next week in Museum Gardens, Bethnal Green (November 14-16), at: http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/gbbioscifest

Top image: Scanning electron microscopy of a polystyrene particle attached to a cleaning hair of an ant by Alexander Hackmann

Middle image: Rib and muscle by Mohammad Hajihosseini

Bottom image: Microtubules in vitro by Ian Newton

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BBSRC-funded scientists are breaking down bacterial communities

These images by Dr Nicola Stanley-Wall, Dr Laura Hobley and Ms Rachel Gillespie from the University of Dundee show complex social communities of bacteria, known as biofilms.

Bacteria are single-celled organisms but they have the amazing capability to form these altruistic communities. Familiar examples of biofilms include dental plaque on your teeth and the slime that forms down your plug hole.

Biofilms made by a bacterium called Bacillus subtilis are waterproof because the cells make a ‘raincoat’ to protect themselves. You can see how effective this raincoat is by looking at the coloured water droplets that were placed on the biofilm pictured above.

When living in a biofilm community, bacteria are more resistant to antibiotics and are harder to remove from surfaces.

If we can understand what makes bacteria form a biofilm we can use this information to develop new ways to treat the chronic biofilm related infections that form on surgical implants, inside catheters, or in the lungs of people with Cystic Fibrosis.

Find out more about what this team is up to at BBSRC’s Great British Bioscience Festival in November: www.bbsrc.ac.uk/society/exhibitions/gb-bioscience-festival/biofilms-building-bacterial-cities.aspx

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It’s BBSRC’s birthday this week!

You can find out more about some of the Great British Bioscience highlights that have occurred over the past 20 years by looking at BBSRC’s interactive timeline: www.bbsrc.ac.uk/timeline/.

The timeline shows where BBSRC’s investments have made a difference – from ground-breaking scientific discoveries, state-of-the-art facilities, shaping Government policies, to the impact that these have had for our society and the economy (see three examples above).

Enjoy, engage and share.

Source: bbsrc.ac.uk science bioscience BBSRC BBSRC20 discovery breakthrough policies economy

Cell survival in low oxygen environments

When the body is deprived of enough oxygen it can cause the death of cells. In this video, you can see living cells in a low oxygen environment, which ironically look like little ghosts. In an attempt to survive, cells are accumulating a protein called hypoxia inducible factor (green).

By monitoring the levels of this protein in cells and observing how it affects genes switching on, BBSRC-funded researchers at The University of Liverpool have shown that the timing of the protein increase and disappearance in cells is essential for cell survival, a development that could have implications for cancer patients and other serious illnesses.

Research from: Dr Violaine See at The University of Liverpool

Video credited to: James Bagnall

For more information on this research visit: http://bit.ly/R03OBv

Or go to the BBSRC website for more science news: http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/home/home.aspx

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2009 overall BBSRC photo competition winner Copyright: Thomas Endlein, University of Cambridge.
To enter this years Images with Impact competition, seeking the best images that showcase UK bioscience and its importance in everyday life, enter at:... — **2009 overall BBSRC photo competition winner**
Copyright: Thomas Endlein, University of Cambridge.
To **enter** this years **Images with Impact** competition, seeking the best images that showcase UK bioscience and its importance in everyday life, enter at: http://bbsrc2014.picturk.com/.
This striking image from BBSRC-funded Thomas Endlein shows an Asian Weaver ant, upside down on a smooth surface, and carrying a weight in its jaws.
Asian Weaver ants *(Oecophylla smaragdina)* can carry weights of more than 100 times their own body weight whilst upside down on a smooth surface. To do this, they have incredibly sticky pads on their feet.
Along with their extraordinary carrying capabilities weaver ants are also known for their territorial tendency. They readily defend against intruders making them a useful tool in controlling agricultural insect pests, avoiding the need for chemical insecticides.They have traditionally been used in this way in Chinese and Southeast Asian citrus orchards for at least 1,500 years.
To see more images from the last competition and to find out how to win the competition visit:
http://youtu.be/k_1EFfdO_NU

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The secrets of cell development

Amazingly, all the cells in our body have exactly the same DNA and yet still manage to be completely different and carry out different jobs, from pumping our hearts to fighting off infections!

We have epigenetic marks to thank for this. Epigenetic marks (special molecules that attach at certain areas of the DNA) control how a DNA sequence is read and provide a mechanism for cell memory, without affecting the DNA sequence itself. These marks allow cells to interpret the uniform genetic information in different ways, by switching different genes on or off. The marks also help cells to remember which genes should be on and off and they can also pass this information onto other cells during cell division.

Without these epigenetic mechanisms cells would lose their identity, and to some extent that is what happens in diseases like cancer.

BBSRC-funded Professor Wolf Reik and Dr Fatima Santos, from the University Of Cambridge and The Babraham Institute, are studying stem cells, like the cells above, to find out more about epigenetic information: research which is providing us with new approaches to improve the potential of stem cells for regenerative medicine.

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When you look at cool science images do you think about the technology behind the picture?

BBSRC funds a range of state-of-the-art imaging facilities that do more than just take a pretty picture.

One of these facilities is found at the Babraham Institute from where the images above, of HeLa cells at different stages of cell division, were taken.

The top image shows HeLa cells dividing into two. Cells (green) and chromosomes (blue). The Image was taken on a confocal microscope, a device which allows for live cell imaging with minimal specimen damage. Credit: Robert Cooper and Simon Walker

In the bottom image, HeLa cells can be seen at the end of the separation process, after cell division. Tubulin (green) nucleus (blue). The image was captured and reconstructed using a super resolution microscope. Image credit: Simon Walker

Advances in imaging technologies have revolutionized many fields of scientific research and their continued development is constantly changing the way we see science.

Read more about the way new imaging techniques are changing science: http://tmblr.co/ZtJ7bq1QJY5Ye

Read more about the Babraham Institute: http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/organisation/institutes/institutes-of-bbsrc/babraham.aspx

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Helping mend broken hearts
UK researchers from the BBSRC-funded Babraham Institute have recently discovered how signalling processes within the heart can trigger the development of enlarged heart cells, a process called hypertrophy.
While this may... — **Helping mend broken hearts**
UK researchers from the BBSRC-funded Babraham Institute have recently discovered how signalling processes within the heart can trigger the development of enlarged heart cells, a process called hypertrophy.
While this may sound romantic, and is necessary for developmental growth, hypertrophy often leads to cardiac failure.
The image shown above, a 3D reconstruction of a section through a rat heart, is from the BBSRC-funded Babraham Institute, a world-leading centre for studying the basic biology of signalling processes, supporting BBSRC’s mission to drive advances in bioscience for health and improved quality of life.
Understanding how these changes occur in the heart, in response to disease and ageing, may lead to new approaches to treat heart disease, which costs the economy about £9Bn annually.
Read more on this at: http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/news/health/2012/121211-pr-how-heart-muscle-cells-get-remodelled.aspx
Copyright - Hanneke Okkenhaug and Llewelyn Roderick from the Babraham Institute.

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Chapattis Vs Zinc Deficiency

Zinc deficiency affects around 17% of the world’s population, mostly in developing countries. In Pakistan, the most recent national nutrition survey indicated that over 40% of women are zinc deficient. Stunted growth and development in children, increased susceptibility to infections, and complications during pregnancy and childbirth are just some of the consequences of zinc deficiency. Potentially leading to severe illness and death, this seemingly invisible deficiency has a negative economic impact on the family, the community, and the region more broadly.

So in May 2017 a group of researchers from the University of Central Lancashire started investigating whether a newly developed strain of biofortified wheat could increase dietary zinc intake in Pakistan by integrating the wheat into normal eating habits, and is being used is used to make chapattis – a staple food in the brick kiln communities of Peshawar.

Biofortified crops are developed using conventional plant breeding techniques, like cross-breeding standard varieties with their wild relatives over several generations. This means that biofortified crops are often more resilient to pests, diseases, higher temperatures and drought, as well as having higher micronutrient concentrations, such as zinc.

The trials were successfully completed in February this year, and the team are heading out to Pakistan this month to meet with research partners. The next steps are laboratory analysis, data entry and statistical analysis, and the team hope they will show improved zinc status associated with consuming bio-fortified zinc flour.

pakistan wheat chapattis biofortification bioscience lancashire peshawar zinc deficiency micronutrients food security health

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You know what’s really cool about writing for tumblr? I actively want to read the comments because we get good contributions and civil critique and interesting dialogue. Now that WADTT posts are getting shared off of tumblr I have to remember that not everyone is as cool as y’all and not to read the comments.

Great British Bioscience — Signal may send cancer’s cellular factories into...

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Chapattis Vs Zinc Deficiency