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By Sophie Arthur How many diseases and conditions do you think exist in this world? Thousands? Hundreds of thousands? Maybe even millions? Unfortunately, I don’t know the answer. But what I do know is there could be one solution to all of them! Yes, one perfect medicine of the future! The answer? Stem cells!Stem cells, promises & superheroes Our bodies are made up of an extraordinary amount of cells – all with their own unique shape, function and gene expression, and one of the reaso …

Ralitsa R. Madsen – University of Cambridge Metabolic Research Laboratories Each one of us is the result of an extraordinary developmental process during which a single fertilised egg turns into more than a trillion cells. This is critically dependent on exquisite coordination of fundamental cell behaviours including growth, migration and “decisions” to differentiate into cell types with specialised functions. When co-ordination is lost, either during …

Throughout my graduate and postgraduate studies I have been really intrigued and fascinated by the mitochondria, the organelle that keeps all of us running everyday! The more I learn about them, the more intricate they get. Historical Perspective on Mitochondria Function Traditionally, mitochondria were known to be a static organelle that is involved in energy production, earning the nickname “powerhouse of the cell”. But, in recent years …

Ahmad Gazali PhD candidate, University of Eastern Finland Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is an autoimmune disease where the pancreatic β cells that produce insulin, a key hormone involved in the regulation of carbohydrate metabolism, are destroyed through dysregulated immune responses.Clinical manifestations of T1D In humans, the clinical manifestation of T1D is typically preceded by a preclinical phase in which diabetes-associated autoantibodies (DAAs) can be detected in the …

What is Immunometabolism? Immunometabolism is an exponentially growing, multi-disciplinary field of research aiming at deciphering the dynamic cellular and molecular mechanisms that interweave metabolic and immunological processes together. Although the term “immunometabolism” first appeared in the literature in 2011, the first studies investigating the connection between immune and metabolic disorders date back to the late 19th century. Our expanding unde …