Related topics: proceedings of the national academy of sciences , cells , molecules



Cell membrane

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The cell membrane (also called the plasma membrane or plasmalemma) is the biological membrane separating the interior of a cell from the outside environment.

It is a semipermeable lipid bilayer found in all cells. It contains a wide variety of biological molecules, primarily proteins and lipids, which are involved in a vast array of cellular processes such as cell adhesion, ion channel conductance and cell signaling. The plasma membrane also serves as the attachment point for both the intracellular cytoskeleton and, if present, the extracellular cell wall.

For more information about Cell membrane, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.


News tagged with cell membrane

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A cell's 'cap' of bundled fibers could yield clues to disease

A cell's 'cap' of bundled fibers could yield clues to disease (w/ Video)

Biology / Biotechnology

created Dec 02, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0

It turns out that wearing a cap is good for you, at least if you are a mammal cell.


Nervy research: Researchers take initial look at ion channels in a model system

Nervy research: Researchers take initial look at ion channels in a model system

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Dec 02, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Before one of your muscles can twitch, before the thought telling it to flex can race down your nerve, a tiny floodgate of sorts -- called an ion channel -- must open in the surface of each cell in these organs ...


An atomic-level look at an HIV accomplice

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Nov 19, 2009 | popularity 1 / 5 (1) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Since the discovery in 2007 that a component of human semen called SEVI boosts infectivity of the virus that causes AIDS, researchers have been trying to learn more about SEVI and how it works, in hopes of ...


Imaging study shows HIV particles assembling around its genome

Medicine & Health / HIV & AIDS

created Nov 17, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- The genesis of one the planet's most lethal viruses, HIV, has been caught on tape. New imaging experiments show individual HIV genomes -- strands of RNA — docking on the inner membrane of an infected cell ...


Gold Nanoparticles Delivery Platinum Warheads to Tumors

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

created Oct 29, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (7) | comments 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- Cisplatin is one of the most powerful and effective drugs for treating a wide variety of cancers, but serious side effects ultimately limit the drug's use and effectiveness. Now, however, researchers have ...


HIV tamed by designer 'leash'

Medicine & Health / HIV & AIDS

created Oct 29, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Researchers have shown how an antiviral protein produced by the immune system, dubbed tetherin, tames HIV and other viruses by literally putting them on a leash, to prevent their escape from infected cells. The insights reported ...


Cholesterol-lowering medicines may be effective against cancer

Cholesterol-lowering medicines may be effective against cancer

Medicine & Health / Research

created Oct 27, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Millions of people around the world use medicines based on statins to lower their blood cholesterol, but new research from the University of Gothenburg, published in the prestigious journal PNAS, shows that s ...


The Physics Of A Bump In A Rug

The Physics Of A Bump In A Rug

Physics / General Physics

created Oct 20, 2009 | popularity 3.7 / 5 (7) | comments 0

Scientists often have to make sacrifices for their work. Physicist Dominic Vella chopped his bathroom rug into strips, and L. Mahadevan's coauthor ran off with his bookshelf. With these sacrifices, these two ...


NEDD9 protein supports growth of aggressive breast cancer

Medicine & Health / Cancer

created Oct 02, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 1

Researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center have demonstrated that a protein called NEDD9 may be required for some of the most aggressive forms of breast cancer to grow. Their findings, based on the study of a mouse model of breast ...


Sternopygus macrurus

Electric fish plug in to communicate

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Sep 29, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- Just as people plug in to computers, smart phones and electric outlets to communicate, electric fish communicate by quickly plugging special channels into their cells to generate electrical ...


Nanoresearchers challenge dogma in protein transportation in cells

Nanoresearchers challenge dogma in protein transportation in cells

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Sep 21, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

New data on signaling proteins, called G proteins, may prove important in fighting diseases such as cardiovascular, neurodegenerative disorders, and cancer. For many decades scientists have puzzled on "How ...


Cell discovery opens new chapter in drug development

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Sep 08, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (7) | comments 0

Scientists have uncovered new details about how the cells in our bodies communicate with each other and their environment: findings that are of fundamental importance to human biology.


The plant cell's corset

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Sep 02, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

We still have a lot to discover about the mechanism in plants that ensures cell growth in a specific direction. However it is clear that a structure of parallel protein tubes plays an important role. Simon Tindemans investigated ...


Finding the ZIP-code for gene therapy: Scientists imitate viruses to deliver therapeutic genes

Biology / Biotechnology

created Aug 31, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

A research report featured on the cover of the September 2009 print issue of The FASEB Journal describes how Australian scientists developed a new gene therapy vector that uses the same machinery that viruses use to transp ...


Researchers identify new, cancer-causing role for protein

Researchers identify new, cancer-causing role for protein

Medicine & Health / Cancer

created Aug 27, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

The mainstay immune system protein TRAF6 plays an unexpected, key role activating a cell signaling molecule that in mutant form is associated with cancer growth, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. ...