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New cost-effective material which mimics natural ‘extracellular matrix’ has allowed scientists to capture previously unseen behaviour in individual plant cells, including new shapes and interactions. New methods highlight potential developments for plant tissue engineering.

Scientists at the ̽»¨Ö±²¥ of Cambridge have identified a key chemical that can repair the damage to cells which causes a rare but devastating disease involving accelerated ageing. As well as offering a promising new way of treating the condition, known as Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome (HGPS), the discovery could help in the development of drugs against cancer and other genetic diseases and might also suggest ways to alleviate diseases that we associate with normal ageing.

We know much about how embryos develop, but one key stage – implantation – has remained a mystery. Now, scientists from Cambridge have discovered a way to study and film this ‘black box’ of development.

Discovery could lead to new treatments for this genetic disorder.

A Cambridge Science Festival lecture on Wednesday (13 March 2013) will look at how plants grow through repeating patterns and discuss what we can learn from them in developing smart materials.  

̽»¨Ö±²¥Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has today been jointly awarded to Professor Sir John Gurdon, Emeritus Professor in Cell Biology currently at the ̽»¨Ö±²¥â€™s Gurdon Institute, along with Professor Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto ̽»¨Ö±²¥, for their pioneering work in stem cell research.

Scientists hopeful discovery will provide a biological target for drug therapy.

A book written for the general reader, Betrayed by Nature: ̽»¨Ö±²¥War on Cancer by Dr Robin Hesketh, sets out in plain English what goes wrong in our bodies when cells begin to replicate in an abnormal manner, and what science is doing to address the disease that kills seven million people every year.

Cambridge researchers have developed a new technique for measuring and mapping gene and cell activity through fluorescence in living plant tissue.

̽»¨Ö±²¥discovery by scientists in Cambridge and Alberta of a fifth adaptor protein – a tiny and vital component of many cells –will lay the foundations for a greater understanding of genetic disorders.