The U.S. journal Science has termed new technologies that reveal how DNA cues individual cells to grow through time as “Breakthrough of the Year”. Experts say these methods will transform science over the coming decades, allowing an ever clearer picture of the processes behind ageing, healing, and disease. Researchers are hard at work, looking for ways to apply these techniques to human cells — how they mature, regenerate, and what goes wrong when cancer, diabetes or even physical malformations occur. Other scientists are studying kidney cell types, including ones that become cancerous, as well as the interplay between maternal and fetal cells in pregnancy. A group of 53 institutions and 60 companies across Europe, called the LifeTime consortium, is studying cell by cell how tissues develop cancer, diabetes, and other diseases.

Source: The Hindu December 21, 2018 16:41 UTC