cell biology

New brain atlas reveals neurons build identity after birth, not from parent cells

A newly born neuron does not simply inherit a ready-made identity from the stem cell that produced it. Instead, it constructs that identity during a brief window right after its final cell division, when the regulatory landscape of its DNA…

New cell death mechanism found in Alzheimer’s brains

Researchers at King's College London have identified a previously unknown form of programmed cell death called karyoptosis in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia, a discovery that could reshape understanding of how neurons are lost in…

Study finds mitochondria plug directly into the nucleus

For decades, biologists assumed that the energy produced by mitochondria simply diffused throughout the cell until it reached wherever it was needed. A study published in Nature on June 10 upends that model, revealing that mitochondria physically plug into the…