This image may look unassuming, but this molecular process has helped save millions of lives. Those are memory B cells, they are formed after exposure to a virus including vaccinations. They jump into action when the virus reappears to help fight and prevent infection. In a paper published in Nature Medicine, Baylor researchers describe how … Continue reading
Memories don’t just happen in the brain – our immune system also can maintain long-term memory against viruses. That is why vaccinations have been the most widely used strategy to protect against viral infection for centuries. However, the cellular processes that control our immune system’s “memory” have yet to be fully explained. Researchers at Baylor … Continue reading
A team of scientists from around the world led by Baylor College of Medicine and Washington University in St. Louis has completed the genome sequence of the common marmoset – the first sequence of a New World Monkey – providing new information about the marmoset’s unique rapid reproductive system, physiology and growth, shedding new light … Continue reading
By Dr. Gail Demmler Harrison, professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine and attending physician in Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Texas Children’s Hospital 2014 marks the 32nd year I have studied congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV). In 1982, the Houston Congenital CMV Longitudinal Study began looking into the prevalence of congenital CMV infection in Houston and … Continue reading
Cancer has long been thought to be primarily a genetic disease, but in recent decades scientists have come to believe that epigenetic changes – which don’t change the DNA sequence but how it is ‘read’ – also play a role in cancer. In particular DNA methylation, the addition of a methyl group (or molecule), is … Continue reading
Alternative splicing (the process during gene expression that generates multiple proteins from a single gene) plays an important role in many developmental processes. In muscle formation, it has been known that this process occurs in multiple genes when muscle cells called myoblasts fuse to become fibers called myotubes; however, not much is known about the … Continue reading
Synaptic plasticity, the ability of neurons to strengthen or weaken their connections, makes up the cellular basis of learning and memory formation. High neuronal activity strengthens the connection between neurons in a process known as long-term potentiation (LTP). Conversely, low activity decreases the strength of synaptic connection resulting into long-term depression (LTD). Little is known … Continue reading
Dr. Koen Venken has been named the newest McNair Scholar at Baylor College of Medicine. Venken is an emerging scientist whose work focuses on the development of cutting edge molecular genetics and genomic technologies to identify new cancer genes that can be targeted for novel therapies. With funding from the McNair Scholar Program and the … Continue reading
From the Labs 