Articles by Stowers Institute for Medical Research

Researchers uncover new evolutionary insight: sea lamprey brain development is remarkably similar to that of humans

Opening the black box to uncover the rules of the genome's regulatory code

Since the synaptonemal complex was first discovered in 1956, researchers have been trying to identify its many moving parts and how they fit together

Findings suggest that ribosomal DNA copy number could be used to predict which cancers will be sensitive to DNA-damaging chemotherapeutics

Protein responsible for synaptic connections leading to enduring memories is found to have two distinct physical states

The older we get, the less likely we are to hear well, as our inner ear sensory hair cells succumb to age or injury. Intriguingly, humans are one-upped by fish here. Similar hair cells in a fish sensory system that dots their bodies and forms the lateral line, by which they discern water movement, are readily regenerated if damage or death occurs.

Cancer is a notoriously evasive disease. It can adopt multiple identities, accumulating mutations or even gaining or losing whole chromosomes to create genetic variants of itself that are resistant to whatever drug is thrown its way.

Adult organisms ranging from fruit flies to humans harbor adult stem cells, some of which renew themselves through cell division while others differentiate into the specialized cells needed to replace worn-out or damaged organs and tissues.

Scientists from the lab of Stowers Investigator Ali Shilatifard, Ph.D., report in the December 27, 2012 online issue of Cell that one way cells stay so plastic is by stationing a protein called Ell3 at stretches of DNA known as “enhancers” required to activate a neighboring gene.