Beyond Neurons: Guts and Bones Need Acetylcholinesterase and Cholinergic Signaling to Develop

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Mouse_skeleton

Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) is the enzyme (Figure 1) that degrades the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, which is released at neuronal synapses in the brain, at parasympathetic nerve synapses in the periphery, and at neuromuscular junctions. Acetylcholine activates two classes of receptors, the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor, which is an ion channel, and the muscarinic acetylcholine receptor, which is a … Read more

Resistance to Antibiotics of Last Resort

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bacteria

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are becoming a major threat to human health (Figure 1). After a recent scare with a relative who contracted pneumonia while in the hospital, I began to think about antibiotic resistance and how bacteria become resistant even to those antibiotics that are rarely used, such as the carbapenem antibiotics. Bacteria can be infected … Read more

Challenges in Classifying Biology

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Hawaiian_bobtail_squid

There are multiple ways to categorize nearly everything in biology. The value of an individual categorization scheme depends on the perspective of the user. As Shirley Malcom (former Director, Education and Human Resources Programs, AAAS) once said, “We [Biologists] are splitters not lumpers.” This need for classification makes consensus difficult, can limit our way of … Read more

Can you be vaccinated against yourself?

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Injection

What is a vaccine? A vaccine may be described as medicine that stimulates an immune response with a “memory.” Many people also consider a vaccine to be a medicine that prevents a disease caused by a pathogen. Indeed, the first vaccines were ones that prevented infectious diseases, such as polio and measles. Some vaccines have … Read more

Leveraging Cellular Mechanical Signaling to Improve Drug Specificity

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Mesenchymal_stem_cells_in_culture

Toxicity to healthy cells limits the usefulness of conventional chemotherapeutic agents. These drugs kill rapidly dividing cells of all types, not just those in a tumor. In addition to dividing rapidly, some cancer cells establish metastases that have a different stiffness than the surrounding tissue. This mechanical property of a cellular microenvironment is referred to … Read more