Top Stories from the ASCB Post

Brain Cancer Self-Organizes into Streams, Swirls, and Spheres
Brain cancer is not anarchy, a leaderless mob of deranged cells storming through the body. Pedro Lowenstein, Sebastien Motsch, and colleagues at the University of Michigan and Arizona State University presented their findings at ASCB 2015 that brain cancer is highly organized—self-organized. The researchers reported that glioma cells build tumors by self-organizing into streams 10–20 cells wide that obey a mathematically predicted pattern for autonomous agents flowing together.

“Ghost Fibers” Left Behind by Injured Muscle Cells Guide Stem Cells into Position for Regeneration
Ghosts are not your typical cell biology research subjects. But a report by scientists from the Carnegie Institution for Science and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development who developed a technique to observe muscle stem/progenitor cells migrating within injury sites in live mice may change that. The researchers reported at ASCB 2015 in San Diego that “ghost fibers,” remnants of the old extracellular matrix left by dying muscle fibers, guide the cells into position for healing to begin.

Clathrin? In a Work of Art? Interactive Installation about Endocytosis Finds Natural Audience at ASCB
Few are the great works of art about cell biology and fewer still about endocytosis, but ASCB 2015 in San Diego hosted one of that rare breed. Attendees marveled at Absorption, a highly interactive, sculpture-like art installation created by Portuguese digital media artist Rudolfo Quintas in collaboration with Tom Kirchhausen, a Harvard Medical School cell biologist.

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