#immunofluorescence

Lit Accordingly One way to study cellular functions is to break them down to the basics and rebuild from the bottom up. Housed in a basic cell-like membraned structure called a liposome , researchers have studied many cellular functions, including DNA replication. This current study describes a a method for sorting such synthetic cells according to the function of interest, based on fluorescence intensity using confocal microscopy linked with neural network –assisted image analysis Read the published research article here Image from work by Marijn van den Brink and colleagues Department of Bionanoscience, Kavli Institute of Nanoscience, Delft University of Technology, HZ Delft, Netherlands Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Published in Science Advances, June 2026 You can also follow BPoD on Instagram , Twitter , Facebook and Bluesky

Regenerating Regeneration In the embryo wounded skin has the ability to regenerate all cell types. But after birth this capacity is lost and is accompanied by the ingress of extra nerves into the wound tissue ( hyperinnervation ). This study using single-cell sequencing identifies a population of wound-specific fibroblasts only present post-natally and whose gene activity promotes innervation. Thus, reducing innervation holds the key to restoring regenerative capacity after injury Read the published research article here Image from work by Hannah T. Tam and colleagues Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution – NonCommercial – NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) Published in Cell, March 2026 You can also follow BPoD on Instagram , Twitter , Facebook and Bluesky

Vessel Makers Time-lapse imaging and genetic manipulation reveal blood vessel progenitor cells called secondary vascular field cells early in the development of zebrafish embryos are the major origin of intestinal vasculature that then remodels to become the blood supply for many internal organs. Genes Jam2 and Hand2 were found to be key for the emergence of organ-specific vascular progenitors Read the published research article here Image from work by Martyna Griciunaite, Julius Martinkus & Sanjeeva Metikala, and colleagues Department of Pathology and Cell Biology University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA Image originally published with no restrictions equating to Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Published in eLife (Reviewed Preprint), February 2026 You can also follow BPoD on Instagram , Twitter , Facebook and Bluesky

Flow State Cells and tissues grown in the lab can be a bit like a bathtub in a showroom: a fair representation, but of limited use until they’re properly plumbed in. A new development aims to solve this with a platform to grow human blood vessel networks, connected to tiny pumps (dubbed Vascularized In Vitro Organ Systems or VIVOS), which provide lab-grown tissues with a more realistic approximation of vascular flow. The vessels can integrate with a broad range of lab-grown mini organs including lung and cerebral organoids (pictured, brain cells in green and yellow, vascular network labelled red). They allow direct study of how blood flow impacts cells, and the team observed how mechanical forces in the flow cause changes in lining cells that result in vessel networks reshaping. The researchers also modelled vascular malformation in a condition called hereditary haemorrhagic telangiectasia , illustrating its potential for direct disease investigations as well as supporting more realistic lab-grown environments. Written by Anthony Lewis Image from work by Tiger H.Z. Jian and colleagues Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution – NonCommercial – NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) Published in bioRxiv, March 2026 (not peer reviewed) You can also follow BPoD on Instagram , Twitter , Facebook and Bluesky

All Growing Well The interest in manipulating and analysing neurons grown from stem cells in the lab is wide-reaching – from early normal brain development to understanding and treating neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. Described in this paper is a new approach for cultivating neurons: in multi-well plates . Each plastic plate is a uniform array of 384 tiny wells into which cells and nutrient liquid, and to which potential treatment drugs or disruptors, are added. This high-throughput format means a multitude of cultured cells can be rapidly closely monitored dividing, differentiating or dying Read the published research article here Image from work by Mark van der Kroeg and colleagues Department of Psychiatry, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, Netherlands Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Published in eLife (reviewed preprint), March 2026 You can also follow BPoD on Instagram , Twitter , Facebook and Bluesky

Neuron Driven Immunity The particular set of immune cells and processes involved in a response to worms and other parasites is known as a type 2 inflammation response. This same type of immune response also occurs during allergic reactions like asthma and eczema. Recently, however, a rather unexpected cell type has been found to contribute to type 2 responses: pain sensing neurons . While studying parasitic infections of mice, scientists found that neurons (green) in the gut epithelium (pictured) could detect the parasites and trigger the proliferation of tuft cells (red) – a specialised cell that initiates a type 2 response. Indeed, when these pain neurons were switched off in the mice, the tuft cell numbers dramatically decreased and the animals struggled to fight the infection. Aside from insights into parasite immunity, this discovery suggests novel medications targeting sensory neurons in addition to the immune system might be effective for calming allergic reactions. Written by Ruth Williams Image courtesy of Elizabeth Emanuel and David Artis, from work by Wen Zhang & Elizabeth R. Emanuel, and colleagues Jill Roberts Institute for Research in Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Weill Cornell Medicine, Cornell University, New York, NY, USA Image originally published with no restrictions equating to Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Research published in Nature, January 2026 You can also follow BPoD on Instagram , Twitter , Facebook and Bluesky

Astro Turf Non-neuronal brain cells, astrocytes (here in green), have essential roles in the brain such as redistributing resources and conveying molecular signals. They connect to each other via gap junctions , and now, using expansion microscopy in mouse brain tissue, it’s been revealed that they connect regions of the brain by both long- and short-range networks that have plasticity, reorganising in response to sensory deprivation Read the published research article here Still from video from work by Melissa L. Cooper and colleagues Institute for Translational Neuroscience, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA Video originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution – NonCommercial – NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) Published in Current Biology, April 2026 You can also follow BPoD on Instagram , Twitter , Facebook and Bluesky

Flash and Bone Flexible, sticky and adaptable, cells are the ultimate building blocks – forming lifelong structures during development, or moulding into shape inside wounds. Helping this process along, bioengineers make tiny scaffolds to guide cells while they knit together. But making their structures biocompatible – welcoming to cells and tissues – is a challenge. Here researchers use a technique called two-photon polymerisation , aiming precise laser blasts inside a wobbly hydrogel . Chemicals inside react to each flash of light and harden into patterns, allowing the team to create structures like this model femur (grey). They find a balance between biocompatibility, so the structures attract living cells, and photo reactivity, allowing precise design. The sight of human cells (highlighted in turquoise with nuclei in purple) swarming over the femur, raises hopes for similar tiny structures helping with injuries in the future. Written by John Ankers Image from work by Wanwan Qiu and colleagues Institute for Biomechanics, ETH Zurich, Switzerland Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Published in Advanced Materials, January 2026 You can also follow BPoD on Instagram , Twitter , Facebook and Bluesky

Pulling a Face In the body, connective tissue connects – no news there. But how the right type develops in the right place continues to intrigue. Tendons are a type of connective tissue bringing muscle and bone together, and ligaments are a kind of highly-related connective tissue but distinctive, joining bone to bone. This study of zebrafish face development, identifies the genetic and epigenetic regulatory mechanisms that distinguish tendons and ligaments, and provides insight into disorders in which connective tissue turns to bone Read the published research article here Image from work by Ryan R. Roberts and colleagues Department of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Published in Development, February 2026 You can also follow BPoD on Instagram , Twitter , Facebook and Bluesky

Making Eye Contact Vision begins at the eye's retina – activated by light, electrical signals from the retina travel along neurons via the optic nerve to the brain where they’re processed into ’ sight ’. As this system develops, the neurons don’t land randomly in the brain, they follow a closely-regulated pattern reflecting the point of origin in the retina – mapping to the brain in a process called retinotopy . Here, in fruit flies researchers uncover the fine details, involving molecular gradients and adhesive forces, that control the preservation of the eye pattern as the neurons’ projections ( axons ) establish in the brain Image made using Leica Microsystems microscopy Read the published research article here Image from work by Melinda Kehribar and colleagues Division of Neurobiology, Free University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Published in Current Biology, February 2026 You can also follow BPoD on Instagram , Twitter , Facebook and Bluesky

Early and Long Intervene at the early stages of a disease and you might never have to face the later consequences. A study investigated what triggers early cyst formation in polycystic kidney disease , which occurs when the gene Pkd1 stops working (black cyst regions pictured in the mouse kidney, top). Researchers found that a protein called ANKMY2 directs signalling enzymes into a tiny cell structure called the primary cilium , where they produce a chemical messenger, cAMP , known to be involved in cyst growth. When ANKMY2 was removed, early cyst growth was reduced (bottom) and survival improved. Existing polycystic kidney disease treatments lower cAMP throughout the body, but this study suggests targeting ciliary signalling specifically may offer a more precise strategy. The researchers also found that cilia lengthen before visible cysts form, so could be a biomarker of early disease activity. Written by Anthony Lewis Image from work by Sun-Hee Hwang and colleagues Department of Cell Biology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Published in PLOS Genetics, December 2025 You can also follow BPoD on Instagram , Twitter , Facebook and Bluesky