Biology

Bacteria and Intracellularity clearly demonstrates that cellular microbiology as a field has reached maturity, extending beyond the strictly cellular level to infections of various organs and tissues. Decades of intense investigation into host-bacterial pathogen interactions have highlighted common concepts in intracellularity but also very diverse mechanisms underlying the various infections produced by bacteria. This book offers a wide-ranging look at the latest studies, including: foodborne pathogens, including how, when, and where bacteria interact with the gut and its microbiota infections of the urogenital tract, endothelial barriers, and the nervous system major advances in work with Mycobacterium tuberculosis and M. leprae subcellular microbiology, including metabolism of infected cells, nuclear biology, and microRNAs endosymbionts, in particular the latest work with Wolbachia and its effect on insect transmission of viral pathogens research into cell autonomous defense pathways that has led to major insights into immunology and innate immunity the latest developments in technology, for the next steps in the study of intracellularity.

How are sights and sounds and smells converted into electrical signals in a form that can be interpreted by the nervous system? Although this process, called sensory transduction, began to be understood only relatively recently, so much progress has been made that it is now possible to say atleast in outline (but in most cases in remarkable detail) how transduction occurs for all of the major sense organs of the body. Since the first edition was published in 2003, many new experiments have radically changed some of our previously-held views.This new edition fulfils the book's originalaims, both as an accessible textbook and a general introduction to the senses, by bringing the contents fully up to date with the new information acquired over the last 15 years. In so doing, it continues to provide a comprehensive survey of one of the greatest achievements of modern biology andneuroscience - the unravelling of the mechanism of sensation.Sensory Transduction is written for advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and researchers in neurophysiology and sensory neuroscience.

Two summers ago, scientists removed a tiny piece of flesh from Philip Ball's arm and turned it into a rudimentary "mini-brain." The skin cells, removed from his body, did not die but were instead transformed into nerve cells that independently arranged themselves into a dense network and communicated with each other, exchanging the raw signals of thought. This was life--but whose?  In his most mind-bending book yet, Ball makes that disconcerting question the focus of a tour through what scientists can now do in cell biology and tissue culture. He shows how these technologies could lead to tailor-made replacement organs for when ours fail, to new medical advances for repairing damage and assisting conception, and to new ways of "growing a human." For example, it might prove possible to turn skin cells not into neurons but into eggs and sperm, or even to turn oneself into the constituent cells of embryos.

Introduces all of the essential cell biology and developmental biology background for the study of stem cells  This book gives you all the important information you need to become a stem cell scientist. It covers the characterization of cells, genetic techniques for modifying cells and organisms, tissue culture technology, transplantation immunology, properties of pluripotent and tissue specific stem cells and, in particular, the relevant aspects of mammalian developmental biology. It dispels many misconceptions about stem cells--especially that they can be miracle cells that can cure all ills. The book puts emphasis on stem cell behavior in its biological context and on how to study it. Throughout, the approach is simple, direct, and logical, and evidence is given to support conclusions.  Stem cell biology has huge potential for advancing therapies for many distressing and recalcitrant diseases, and its potential will be realized most quickly when as many people as possible have a good grounding in the science of stem cells.

Chemical and Synthetic Biology Approaches to Understand Cellular Functions - Part A, Volume 621, the latest release in the Methods in Enzymology series, highlights new advances in the field, with this volume covering Site-directed ethylation of membrane proteins for measuring conformational transitions in lipid bilayers, the Design and synthesis of fluorescent activity probes for protein phosphatases, Stains, Utilizing split-nanoLuc fragments as luminescent probes for protein solubility in living cells, SH2-domain based sensor for intracellular recognition of sulfo-tyrosine, DNA-encoded immunoglobulins for detection of parasites, An engineered TEV protease - calmodulin fusion based sensor for neuronal calcium recording, and much more.

Cell Polarity in Development and Disease offers insights into the basic molecular mechanisms of common diseases that arise as a result of a loss of ordered organization and intrinsic polarity. Included are diseases affecting highly polarized epithelial tissues in the lung and kidney, as well as loss and gain of cell polarity in the onset and progression of cancer. This book provides a basic resource for understanding the biology of polarity, offering a starting point for those thinking of targeting cell polarity for translational medical research.

It is hard to avoid hearing about genetic testing. It is advertised, discussed, debated, and offered to patients. Some are over the counter, such as paternity testing, testing for risk for diabetes and others. Others are offered by private companies and still others by drug companies, These tests may or may not show a distinct answer, so it important for patients to understand these results. Early in 1920s a Eugenics movement began in the United States, courts decided which person had undesirable traits and would be sterilized so they could not pass these traits to their children. The idea here was to create a population with better genes (therefore healthier and richer). Families who were chosen received awards and people began to see the importance of genetics. But little did they know how it would EXPLODE This book will look at genetic testing as it applies today and how the serious decisions that it demands, cannot be ignored.

Bridging cellular membranes is a key step in the pathogenic action of both binary and pore-forming bacterial toxins. The former use their translocation domains, containing various structural motifs, to ensure efficient delivery of the toxic component into the host cell, while the latter act on the cellular membrane itself. In either case, the integrity of the membrane is compromised via targeted protein-lipid and protein-protein interactions triggered by specific signals, such as proteolytic cleavage or endosomal acidification. This Special Issue presents recent advances in characterizing functional, structural and thermodynamic aspects of the conformational switching and membrane interactions involved in the cellular entry of bacterial protein toxins. Deciphering the physicochemical principles underlying these processes is also a prerequisite for the use of protein engineering to develop toxin-based molecular vehicles capable of targeted delivery of therapeutic agents to tumors and other diseased tissues.