IL-9 breaks down barriers

Helicobacter breaks down junctions

and colleagues. Although the bacteria may do it to gain access to tasty chemicals that leak out, the results for humans may include stomach ulcers and gastric cancer. The link from cell junctions to stomach ailments may, say the researchers, lie in tissue repair. Injury to the stomach triggers cell division and migration to plug the gap. The chiefs in charge of these processes may well lie in c...

How superhydrophobicity breaks down.

A droplet deposited or impacting on a superhydrophobic surface rolls off easily, leaving the surface dry and clean. This remarkable property is due to a surface structure that favors the entrainment of air cushions beneath the drop, leading to the so-called Cassie state. The Cassie state competes with the Wenzel (impaled) state, in which the liquid fully wets the substrate. To use superhydropho...

Bringing down the barriers

On behalf of TREAT-NMD and NIH, who organized this meeting, I, Günter Scheuerbrandt, a biochemist from Germany, have written this report for all young and older people with neuromuscular diseases, and for their families and care givers. It contains summaries of the 27 presentations and of some of the discussions in between. I have tried to write this report in a way that will let you understand...

Natural Biodiversity Breaks Plant Yield Barriers

Breaking down barriers

entrosomes are required for cytokinesis and are important in cell cycle progression—but how are centrosomes connected to these essential cellular functions at the molecular level? On page 535, Gromley et al. describe the maternal cen-triole protein centriolin, the first integral centrosome protein linked to both cytokinesis and cell cycle progression in vertebrate cells. Overexpression, siRNA s...