Shedding light on the elegant mechanisms that control the push and shove of cells in living organisms
Monday, January 10, 2011 - 12:36
in Physics & Chemistry
The many amazing photomicrographs on display at the entrance to the Electron Microscope Laboratory in the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology (CDB) were all taken by laboratory leader Shigenobu Yonemura and his colleagues. In addition to its own research program, the laboratory also offers technical assistance with electron microscopic analysis to researchers at other laboratories in the CDB. Moving cells seem to have a life of their own. I have long been fascinated by the motion force generated by cells, says Yonemura. His teams recent clarification of the mechanism by which adjacent cells pull and pull against each other has attracted considerable attention.