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Life Sciences - Pharmacology - 18.07.2023 
Mouse study sheds light on how antipsychotics work
Antipsychotic drugs are used to treat and manage symptoms of many psychiatric disorders, but their mechanisms of action remain a mystery. FMI researchers found that antipsychotics reduce long-range communication within a specific layer of the brain cortex — a finding that may explain how these medications work.
Life Sciences - 06.06.2023 
Building face structures by remote control
Craniofacial birth defects, including cleft lip and palate, are among the most common human congenital malformations. Now, FMI researchers have identified a DNA region containing multiple regulatory elements that interact with genes across distant chromosomal neighborhoods, ensuring that specific facial structures develop in the right place.
Life Sciences - Music - 22.05.2023 
Embryo-like models help map early stages of development
An organism's body plan arises through a process called gastrulation, during which the embryo forms three distinct layers of cells that will later give rise to all organs. Now, FMI researchers have mapped the development of three-dimensional clusters of cells that mimic aspects of gastrulation, providing important insights into the molecular mechanisms that regulate early embryonic development and cell fate determination.
Life Sciences - Mathematics - 02.05.2023 
Revealing how an embryo’s cells sync up
Scientists have known that when a mouse embryo is developing, the cells that will become its spine and muscles switch specific genes on and off repeatedly, in a synchronous fashion. However, there are deep mysteries about how these cells synchronize. FMI researchers have now developed a mathematical model that not only better explains how spontaneous synchronization arises in a developing mouse embryo, but may also offer some fundamental clues about how other biological systems sync up.
Life Sciences - 30.03.2023 
Cell mapping and ’mini placentas’ shed light onto human pregnancy
For the first time, researchers have mapped the full trajectory of placental development. Their work could offer new insights into pregnancy disorders and help develop better experimental models of the human placenta. Researchers from the FMI led by Margherita Yayoi Turco, the Wellcome Sanger Institute, the University of Cambridge and EMBL's European Bioinformatics Institute have created an in-depth picture of how the placenta develops and communicates with the uterus.
Life Sciences - 06.02.2023 
Translating an RNA boosts its degradation
In the cell, messenger RNAs — or mRNAs — are translated into proteins and eventually degraded, but the relationship between translation and mRNA decay remains cloudy. FMI researchers developed an innovative tool to control and visualize mRNA translation and decay, one molecule at the time.
Life Sciences - Environment - 23.01.2023 
Molecular clock that helps some animals shed their skin identified
Shrimps, flies and other animals shed their outer body covering at specific times of the year or at specific points in their life cycles through a process called molting. Working in worms, FMI researchers identified the mechanisms underlying a molecular 'molting clock' — as well as several of the clock's components.
Life Sciences - 04.01.2023 
How cells choose between two fates
Our body is made of billions of cells that have the same overall genome but play specialized roles to create different tissues and organs. Working in a freshwater invertebrate, FMI researchers found that a protein called Zic4 drives the formation and maintenance of the tentacles that surround the animal's mouth.
Life Sciences - 05.12.2022 
How chemical modifications on DNA keep genes off
Several diseases, including certain types of cancer and some neurodevelopmental conditions, have aberrant patterns of DNA methylation, a chemical modification that regulates gene expression in ways that keep genes in the 'off' position. FMI researchers found that DNA methylation keeps genes silent mostly by inhibiting the binding of DNA by transcription factors — proteins that control how genes are expressed.
Health - Life Sciences - 11.05.2022 
Thwarting cellular enzyme can fight viral infections
Researchers from FMI have identified a synthetic protein that dampens the activity of a cellular pathway involved in viral infection. The findings could help to develop drugs that combat viruses such as influenza A and Zika. Influenza A virus affects millions of people worldwide and can have serious complications, including bacterial pneumonia, ear infections and the worsening of long-term medical conditions.
Life Sciences - Health - 20.04.2022
Life Sciences - Mathematics - 13.04.2022 
Enhancer-promoter interactions - distance matters
When and where a gene is transcribed in a living organism often depends on its physical interactions with distal genomic regulatory regions called enhancers. Researchers in the group of Luca Giorgetti have thrown light on how such interactions control transcription thanks to a novel ingenious experimental approach combined with mathematical modelling.
Computer Science - 22.03.2022 
Community-based initiative improves reproducibility in microscopy and imaging
Researchers from the FMI Facility for Advanced Imaging and Microscopy (FAIM) are drivers of a large-scale international initiative dedicated to improving quality assessment and quality control in light microscopy. Recently, the workgroup chaired by the Head of FAIM delivered the first protocol for this initiative.
Life Sciences - Psychology - 28.02.2022 
Familiar objects can prevent autism-like behaviors in mouse model
The emergence of autism traits can result from different factors, such as a person's environment and genetic background. FMI researchers and their Novartis collaborators showed that exposing mice with an autism mutation to a new environment can trigger autism-like behaviors — through faulty signaling in the brain.
Life Sciences - 10.12.2021 
Mechanical forces shape the ’immortal’ Hydra
Hydras are tiny creatures with regenerative superpowers: they can renew their stem cells and replace damaged body parts in only a few days. Now, researchers in the Tsiairis group have found that mechanical forces turn on key genes as the mighty Hydras regenerate their entire bodies from scraps of tissue.
Life Sciences - 07.12.2021 
How sound changes sight
When we learn to associate an auditory stimulus with a visual stimulus, the perception of that visual stimulus changes, but this phenomenon is not well understood. For the first time, the Keller group has now identified a mechanism in the brain that enables auditory information to influence visual representations.
Health - Chemistry - 02.12.2021 
Uterine atlas can lead to better models of the womb, provide insights into diseases
In the quest to study the womb and its role in reproductive health, researchers in the Turco lab and their collaborators have generated a cellular map of the human uterus and of endometrial organoids — lab-grown models of the womb's lining. The atlas, which is the most detailed of its kind, will help scientists to develop better models of the womb.
Life Sciences - Health - 15.11.2021 
A histone modification essential for tissue integrity
Chemical modifications of histones, the small proteins around which DNA is wrapped, are known to affect gene expression. In a study conducted in C. elegans , researchers from the Gasser group show that the defining modification of the tightly packed form of DNA called heterochromatin selectively blocks the expression of genes in differentiated tissues.
Health - 08.11.2021 
Mini-placentas: promising tools for studying early pregnancy and its complications
Despite its crucial role in healthy pregnancies, the placenta is one of the least understood organs in the human body. In a new study, Margherita Yayoi Turco and her colleagues compared the two main experimental models of the human placenta. The findings suggest that 3D clusters of placental cells called trophoblast organoids are best suited for investigating interactions between the mother and the fetus, hormone secretion or pathogens that infect the fetus in the womb.
Computer Science - 05.10.2021 
Worm atlas could help crack mysteries in animal evolution
Researchers in the Friedrich group have contributed to create an atlas that links subcellular structures to gene expression in each cell of the sea worm Platynereis dumerilii , a key model organism for the study of development and evolution. The atlas will help researchers to shed light onto molecular and cellular mechanisms at play in our very ancient ancestors.
Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research
Results 1 - 20 of 87.
Antipsychotic drugs are used to treat and manage symptoms of many psychiatric disorders, but their mechanisms of action remain a mystery. FMI researchers found that antipsychotics reduce long-range communication within a specific layer of the brain cortex — a finding that may explain how these medications work.
Craniofacial birth defects, including cleft lip and palate, are among the most common human congenital malformations. Now, FMI researchers have identified a DNA region containing multiple regulatory elements that interact with genes across distant chromosomal neighborhoods, ensuring that specific facial structures develop in the right place.
An organism's body plan arises through a process called gastrulation, during which the embryo forms three distinct layers of cells that will later give rise to all organs. Now, FMI researchers have mapped the development of three-dimensional clusters of cells that mimic aspects of gastrulation, providing important insights into the molecular mechanisms that regulate early embryonic development and cell fate determination.
Scientists have known that when a mouse embryo is developing, the cells that will become its spine and muscles switch specific genes on and off repeatedly, in a synchronous fashion. However, there are deep mysteries about how these cells synchronize. FMI researchers have now developed a mathematical model that not only better explains how spontaneous synchronization arises in a developing mouse embryo, but may also offer some fundamental clues about how other biological systems sync up.
For the first time, researchers have mapped the full trajectory of placental development. Their work could offer new insights into pregnancy disorders and help develop better experimental models of the human placenta. Researchers from the FMI led by Margherita Yayoi Turco, the Wellcome Sanger Institute, the University of Cambridge and EMBL's European Bioinformatics Institute have created an in-depth picture of how the placenta develops and communicates with the uterus.
In the cell, messenger RNAs — or mRNAs — are translated into proteins and eventually degraded, but the relationship between translation and mRNA decay remains cloudy. FMI researchers developed an innovative tool to control and visualize mRNA translation and decay, one molecule at the time.
Shrimps, flies and other animals shed their outer body covering at specific times of the year or at specific points in their life cycles through a process called molting. Working in worms, FMI researchers identified the mechanisms underlying a molecular 'molting clock' — as well as several of the clock's components.
Our body is made of billions of cells that have the same overall genome but play specialized roles to create different tissues and organs. Working in a freshwater invertebrate, FMI researchers found that a protein called Zic4 drives the formation and maintenance of the tentacles that surround the animal's mouth.
Several diseases, including certain types of cancer and some neurodevelopmental conditions, have aberrant patterns of DNA methylation, a chemical modification that regulates gene expression in ways that keep genes in the 'off' position. FMI researchers found that DNA methylation keeps genes silent mostly by inhibiting the binding of DNA by transcription factors — proteins that control how genes are expressed.
Researchers from FMI have identified a synthetic protein that dampens the activity of a cellular pathway involved in viral infection. The findings could help to develop drugs that combat viruses such as influenza A and Zika. Influenza A virus affects millions of people worldwide and can have serious complications, including bacterial pneumonia, ear infections and the worsening of long-term medical conditions.
Structural insights into the assembly of cilia
Cilia, the little "hairs" attached to almost all cells of the human body, play a role in various cellular functions and cause diseases called ciliopathies when they are defective. Researchers from the group of Patrick Matthias and the FMI Structural Biology platform determined the structure, at near atomic resolution, of a protein complex that plays an essential role in the assembly of cilia - and causes ciliopathies when it is mutated.
Cilia, the little "hairs" attached to almost all cells of the human body, play a role in various cellular functions and cause diseases called ciliopathies when they are defective. Researchers from the group of Patrick Matthias and the FMI Structural Biology platform determined the structure, at near atomic resolution, of a protein complex that plays an essential role in the assembly of cilia - and causes ciliopathies when it is mutated.
When and where a gene is transcribed in a living organism often depends on its physical interactions with distal genomic regulatory regions called enhancers. Researchers in the group of Luca Giorgetti have thrown light on how such interactions control transcription thanks to a novel ingenious experimental approach combined with mathematical modelling.
Researchers from the FMI Facility for Advanced Imaging and Microscopy (FAIM) are drivers of a large-scale international initiative dedicated to improving quality assessment and quality control in light microscopy. Recently, the workgroup chaired by the Head of FAIM delivered the first protocol for this initiative.
The emergence of autism traits can result from different factors, such as a person's environment and genetic background. FMI researchers and their Novartis collaborators showed that exposing mice with an autism mutation to a new environment can trigger autism-like behaviors — through faulty signaling in the brain.
Hydras are tiny creatures with regenerative superpowers: they can renew their stem cells and replace damaged body parts in only a few days. Now, researchers in the Tsiairis group have found that mechanical forces turn on key genes as the mighty Hydras regenerate their entire bodies from scraps of tissue.
When we learn to associate an auditory stimulus with a visual stimulus, the perception of that visual stimulus changes, but this phenomenon is not well understood. For the first time, the Keller group has now identified a mechanism in the brain that enables auditory information to influence visual representations.
In the quest to study the womb and its role in reproductive health, researchers in the Turco lab and their collaborators have generated a cellular map of the human uterus and of endometrial organoids — lab-grown models of the womb's lining. The atlas, which is the most detailed of its kind, will help scientists to develop better models of the womb.
Chemical modifications of histones, the small proteins around which DNA is wrapped, are known to affect gene expression. In a study conducted in C. elegans , researchers from the Gasser group show that the defining modification of the tightly packed form of DNA called heterochromatin selectively blocks the expression of genes in differentiated tissues.
Despite its crucial role in healthy pregnancies, the placenta is one of the least understood organs in the human body. In a new study, Margherita Yayoi Turco and her colleagues compared the two main experimental models of the human placenta. The findings suggest that 3D clusters of placental cells called trophoblast organoids are best suited for investigating interactions between the mother and the fetus, hormone secretion or pathogens that infect the fetus in the womb.
Researchers in the Friedrich group have contributed to create an atlas that links subcellular structures to gene expression in each cell of the sea worm Platynereis dumerilii , a key model organism for the study of development and evolution. The atlas will help researchers to shed light onto molecular and cellular mechanisms at play in our very ancient ancestors.
