From droplet to discovery

While investigating a pathway involved in stem cell differentiation, researchers at UC Santa Barbara found that rather than forming an assembly line or rigid structure, all the proteins involved coalesce into a liquid droplet. Through modeling and manipulation, the team began to reveal how cells use this droplet to process and relay information, and how it might malfunction in cancers.

The program returned"a random pile of spaghetti," which is as close as the AI gets to a shrug and an error message, Wilson said. Simulations like this one helped Wilson and his team get an intuition for how the Wnt droplets work. Credit: Max WilsonIt's in this liquid droplet that most of the Wnt pathway occurs, which eventually sends a message to the nucleus telling the cell to differentiate. It also triggers changes tothat dictate what the stem cell becomes."It's like a tiny little liquid computer, right in the middle of the cell," Wilson mused.

Surprised by what they found, the team simulated the droplet using a numerical model. They showed that having all the Wnt proteins concentrated within a droplet makes the pathway much more efficient than if it were diffused throughout the cytoplasm. The blob essentially functions as a little reaction chamber.

A mutation in the genes involved in the Wnt pathway can cause a cell to become cancerous —growing and multiplying with no regard to its neighbors or environmental conditions."For instance, something like 95% of individuals with colorectal cancers have a big chunk missing out of their APC gene," Wilson said.

PNASNews They have linked 'Visualizing a protonated RNA state that modulates microRNA-21 maturation' 10/26/20 to stem cell Creation and maintenance via exosome's therapeutic solutions.

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