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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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 ...


Major insights into evolution of life reported

Major insights into evolution of life reported

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Aug 19, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (39) | comments 37

(PhysOrg.com) -- Humans might not be walking the face of the Earth were it not for the ancient fusing of two prokaryotes -- tiny life forms that do not have a cellular nucleus. UCLA molecular biologist James ...


Breakthrough uses light to manipulate cell movement

Breakthrough uses light to manipulate cell movement

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Aug 19, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 1

One of the biggest challenges in scientists' quest to develop new and better treatments for cancer is gaining a better understanding of how and why cancer spreads. Recent breakthroughs have uncovered how ...


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 ...


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. ...


Alzheimer’s Findings Resolve Dispute Over How Disease Kills Brain Cells

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Apr 15, 2009 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (6) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- For a decade, Alzheimer's disease researchers have been entrenched in debate about one of the mechanisms believed to be responsible for brain cell death and memory loss in the illness.


How mosquitoes could teach us a trick in the fight against malaria

How mosquitoes could teach us a trick in the fight against malaria

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Mar 05, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- The means by which most deadly malaria parasites are detected and killed by the mosquitoes that carry them is revealed for the first time in research published today in Science Express. The di ...


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 ...


India's 'holy powder' finally reveals its centuries-old secret

India's 'holy powder' finally reveals its centuries-old secret

Chemistry / Analytical Chemistry

created Apr 20, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (31) | comments 3

Scientists in Michigan are reporting discovery of the secret behind the fabled healing power of the main ingredient in turmeric — a spice revered in India as "holy powder." Their study on the ingredient, curcumin, ...


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 ...


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.


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 ...