General, open-source vertex modeling in biological applications using Tissue Forge

9/23/2024

Vertex models are a widespread approach for describing the biophysics and behaviors of multicellular systems, especially of epithelial tissues. Vertex models describe a wide variety of developmental scenarios and behaviors…

Modeling the roles of cohesotaxis, cell-intercalation, and tissue geometry in collective cell migration of Xenopus mesendoderm

9/23/2024

Collectively migrating Xenopus mesendoderm cells are arranged into leader and follower rows with distinct adhesive properties and protrusive behaviors. In vivo, leading row mesendoderm cells extend polarized protrusions and migrate along a fibronectin…

Wnt7b acts in concert with Wnt5a to regulate tissue elongation and planar cell polarity via noncanonical Wnt signaling

9/4/2024

Intercellular signaling mediated by evolutionarily conserved planar cell polarity (PCP) proteins aligns cell polarity along the tissue plane and drives polarized cell behaviors during tissue morphogenesis. Accumulating evidence indicates that…

Cancer-oocyte SAS1B protein is expressed at the cell surface of multiple solid tumors and targeted with antibody-drug conjugates

5/30/2024

Background: Sperm acrosomal SLLP1 binding (SAS1B) protein is found in oocytes, which is necessary for sperm-oocyte interaction, and also in uterine and pancreatic cancers. Anti-SAS1B antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) arrested growth in these cancers.…

The Chlamydomonas flagellar membrane and its dynamic properties

5/2/2024

This chapter overviews a membrane bound organelle and describes its dynamic properties. The plasma membrane of a Chlamydomonas cell must have at least two domains. The Chlamydomonas flagellar membrane is a sub-domain of and…

Induced Endothelial Cell Cycle Arrest Prevents Arteriovenous Malformations in Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia

3/25/2024

Background: Distinct endothelial cell cycle states (early G1 versus late G1) provide different "windows of opportunity" to enable the differential expression of genes that regulate venous versus arterial specification, respectively.…

Clonal Hematopoiesis in Clinical and Experimental Heart Failure With Preserved Ejection Fraction

3/25/2024

Background: Clonal hematopoiesis (CH), which results from an array of nonmalignant driver gene mutations, can lead to altered immune cell function and chronic disease, and has been associated with worse…

Obesity accelerates endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition in adipose tissues of mice and humans

3/25/2024

Introduction: Vascular dysfunction and chronic inflammation are characteristics of obesity-induced adipose tissue dysfunction. Proinflammatory cytokines can drive an endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EndoMT), where endothelial cells undergo a phenotypic switch to mesenchymal-like…

Obesogenic diet disrupts tissue-specific mitochondrial gene signatures in the artery and capillary endothelium

3/25/2024

Endothelial cells (ECs) adapt to the unique needs of their resident tissue and metabolic perturbations, such as obesity. We sought to understand how obesity affects EC metabolic phenotypes, specifically mitochondrial…

Distinct hypoxia-induced translational profiles of embryonic and adult-derived macrophages

3/25/2024

Tissue resident macrophages are largely of embryonic (fetal liver) origin and long-lived, while bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMDM) are recruited following an acute perturbation, such as hypoxia in the setting of…