{"id":140482,"date":"2024-09-23T17:40:32","date_gmt":"2024-09-23T17:40:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/23\/this-biophysicists-work-could-one-day-let-doctors-control-immune-cells\/"},"modified":"2024-09-23T17:40:32","modified_gmt":"2024-09-23T17:40:32","slug":"this-biophysicists-work-could-one-day-let-doctors-control-immune-cells","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/23\/this-biophysicists-work-could-one-day-let-doctors-control-immune-cells\/","title":{"rendered":"This biophysicist\u2019s work could one day let doctors control immune cells"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><\/div> \r\n<br><div style=\"clear:both\">\n<style><![CDATA[\n.subscribe-cta {\n  color: black;\n  margin-top: 0px;\n  background-color: #EDD695;\n  background-size: cover;\n  padding: 20px;\n  border: 1px solid black;\n  border-top: 5px solid black;\n  clear: both;\n}\n\n.centered {\n  text-align:center;\n  margin:auto;\n}\n\n]]><\/style>\n<!-- \/wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:group {\"className\":\"subscribe-cta\"} -->\n<div id=\"subscribeConversion\" class=\"wp-block-group subscribe-cta\"><!-- wp:heading {\"textAlign\":\"center\",\"style\":{\"typography\":{\"fontSize\":\"2em\"}}} -->\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\" style=\"font-size:2em\">Extreme Climate Survey<\/h2>\n<!-- \/wp:heading -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph {\"align\":\"center\",\"style\":{\"typography\":{\"fontSize\":\"1.1em\"}}} -->\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\" style=\"font-size:1.1em\"><strong><em>Science News <\/em>is collecting reader questions about how to navigate our planet&#8217;s changing climate.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\" style=\"font-size:1.1em\">What do you want to know about extreme heat and how it can lead to extreme weather events?<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:spacer {\"height\":\"20px\"} -->\n\n<!-- \/wp:spacer -->\n\n<!-- wp:buttons {\"className\":\"centered\",\"layout\":{\"type\":\"flex\",\"justifyContent\":\"center\"}} -->\n\n<!-- \/wp:buttons --><\/div>\n<!-- \/wp:group -->\n\n\n<p>But that\u2019s only possible by demystifying the mechanics of cell movement. \u201cWe need to understand how cells work if we want to manipulate them,\u201d Thiam says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is \u201cunquestionably an important area of research,\u201d says Clifford Brangwynne, a bioengineer at Princeton University. People sometimes have the misconception that biology is this mysterious universe that somehow operates outside the laws of physics, he says. But the same kinds of physical rules that govern the inanimate world are also at play in living systems.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s a topic that keeps Thiam\u2019s curiosity whirring. This past summer, she submitted three grant applications, and her potential projects can lead in some surprising directions. In one, Thiam proposed collaborating with a biologist who studies ant behavior. Yes, the insects. That may sound out of the blue for someone who studies immune cells.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But Thiam says the cells her lab studies \u2014 a type of white blood cell called neutrophils that seek out and destroy dangerous microbes \u2014 have something in common with ants. Neither have a central control system telling them how to do their job. Instead, the first wave of ant hunters finds a food source and then leaves a trail of chemical breadcrumbs for other ants to follow. Similarly, neutrophils leave a chemical trail for their reinforcements. This type of collective behavior, where interactions between individuals influence group action has been well-studied in ants, Thiam says. \u201cWe can learn a lot from that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, she wants to know if what a neutrophil ends up doing with a microbe it discovers \u2014 eat it, poison it, trap it \u2014 influences the search behavior of subsequent cells.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That undercurrent of desire to learn and ask questions \u2014 about science and herself \u2014 has flowed throughout her career. Thiam grew up in Senegal and moved to France for her undergraduate and graduate degrees. Her Ph.D. work revolved around understanding how the nucleus influences a cell\u2019s ability to move. At the time, conventional wisdom on cell migration for the most part ignored the nucleus, Thiam says. Scientists thought crawling cells took three basic steps. They extend a \u201cfoot,\u201d attach it to a nearby surface, then retract the rear, pulling the cell body forward. (Imagine Batman whisked up the side of a building by his retractable grappling hook.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But that largely two-dimensional view overlooked cells\u2019 3-D environment, Thiam says. Sure, cells can crawl along flat surfaces, but what about when they need to cram through tight spots? From experiments that had cells moving through smaller and smaller pores, Thiam\u2019s team reported in <em>Nature Communications<\/em> in 2016 that the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/ncomms10997\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">nucleus helps determine whether immune cells can migrate in confining environments<\/a>. Compare cell movement to passing a plastic bag through a small hole. If the bag contains a kiwi, it probably won\u2019t fit.<\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image \"><picture class=\"sn-responsive-image\"><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sciencenews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/sn10_hawa-racine-thiam_inline2_desktop.jpg?w=680&amp;ssl=1 680w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sciencenews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/sn10_hawa-racine-thiam_inline2_desktop.jpg?resize=330%2C55&amp;ssl=1 330w\" width=\"680\" height=\"114\" media=\"(min-width: 600px)\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1023px) 100vw, 680px\"><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sciencenews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/sn10_hawa-racine-thiam_inline2_mobile.jpg?w=680&amp;ssl=1 680w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sciencenews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/sn10_hawa-racine-thiam_inline2_mobile.jpg?resize=330%2C55&amp;ssl=1 330w\" width=\"680\" height=\"114\"><\/source><\/source><\/picture><figcaption><span class=\"caption mobile-caption wp-caption-3143397\">A mouse immune cell contorts its cytoskeleton (green) and nucleus (red) as it squeezes through a microchannel with a narrow constriction (magenta).<\/span><span class=\"credit mobile-credit wp-credit-3143397\">Hawa Racine Thiam\/Matthieu Piel\u2019s lab<\/span><span class=\"caption desktop-caption wp-caption-3143396\">A mouse immune cell contorts its cytoskeleton (green) and nucleus (red) as it squeezes through a microchannel with a narrow constriction (magenta).<\/span><span class=\"credit desktop-credit wp-credit-3143396\">Hawa Racine Thiam\/Matthieu Piel\u2019s lab<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n<p>Thiam and her colleagues discovered that cells have a way to deform their nuclei, up to a point. Cells rupture the membrane surrounding the nucleus and extrude some of its guts, making the whole thing more able to ooze through a constriction. It\u2019s like crushing that kiwi until the fuzzy skin breaks and the fruit is floppy rather than firm. Now it can squeeze through a smaller space. Until this work, no one had shown that nuclei behave like that, Thiam says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Later, during her postdoctoral work in Clare Waterman\u2019s lab at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., Thiam continued her investigations of cell nuclei. In a 2020 paper in <em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences<\/em>, she and her colleagues reported on one of the weirder aspects of biology, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pnas.org\/doi\/10.1073\/pnas.1909546117\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">cellular defense mechanism called NETosis<\/a>. It\u2019s a way for neutrophils to physically trap invading bacteria, fungi or viruses. Pathogens creep into the body and \u2014 BOOM \u2014 suddenly they\u2019re ensnared, like dolphins caught in a fishing net. But this net is made of DNA: The immune cell blasts out its own genetic material to capture microbes. \u201cIt\u2019s this crazy phenomenon,\u201d Thiam says.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image  has-alignleft\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"680\" height=\"642\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sciencenews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/sn10_hawa-racine-thiam_inline.gif?resize=680%2C642&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"After a human neutrophil engulfs a pathogen, the neutrophil blasts its DNA into its environment. That DNA forms a net that can entrap and kill other pathogens.\" class=\"wp-image-3143395\" style=\"width:300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><span class=\"caption wp-caption-3143395\">After a human neutrophil (center) engulfs a pathogen (the yeast <em>Candida albicans<\/em>, cyan), the neutrophil blasts its DNA (green) into its environment. That DNA forms a net that can entrap and kill other pathogens.<\/span><span class=\"credit wp-credit-3143395\">Hawa Racine Thiam\/Clare Waterman\u2019s lab<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>Scientists had first reported NETosis in 2004, but they didn\u2019t really know how it worked. That\u2019s what Thiam\u2019s team took on. Using cutting-edge microscopy and gene-editing techniques, the researchers outlined the sequence of events that begin with a cell\u2019s DNA packed inside the nucleus and end with it blown outside the cell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cShe has this fearlessness in coming at these really very challenging problems in cell biology,\u201d says Brangwynne, who is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. He thinks that fearlessness stems from her background. Thiam has crossed boundaries between nations, different fields of science and languages (she speaks four). \u201cI think she\u2019s really not afraid of much of anything,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>But Thiam says she still asks herself if she\u2019s smart enough, works hard enough and is capable of being a good scientist and mentor. \u201cI think it\u2019s OK to have doubts,\u201d Thiam says. She acknowledges them, tries not to let them overpower her and thinks about how she can improve. And whenever Thiam\u2019s questioning herself, she tries to remember that she and others believe in her \u2014 and then she forges onward with her work, writing grants, doing science and training students. \u201cI just try to keep pushing,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n<br>\r\n<br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencenews.org\/article\/hawa-racine-thiam-cell-biology-physics\">Source link <\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Extreme Climate Survey Science News is collecting reader questions about how to navigate our planet&#8217;s changing climate. What do you want to know about extreme heat and how it can lead to extreme weather events? But that\u2019s only possible by demystifying the mechanics of cell movement. \u201cWe need to understand how cells work if we [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140483,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sciencenews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/sn10_hawa-racine-thiam_inline2_mobile.jpg?fit=680%2C114&ssl=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[606],"tags":[112075,5587,4794,758,9995,1974,1396],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140482"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140482"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":140484,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140482\/revisions\/140484"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}