A combination of cellular, biochemical, genetic and genomic techniques have revealed a new molecular player in the production of fat cells in mice, which could improve our understanding of obesity.

A transmembrane protein uses distinct mechanisms to regulate the movement of specific toll-like receptors-key immune system components involved in detecting pathogens-to their final locations inside cells.

Exposing rats to acute stress increased the generation of new neurons in a subregion of the hippocampus, and improved the animals' performance in a memory task two weeks later.

The Botryllus schlosseri genome yields insights into the evolution of hematopoiesis.

Quantitative observations of single-molecule binding between antigen and T cell receptor (TCR) in living primary T cells reveals unbinding kinetics, stoichiometry and signaling molecule recruitment, providing insights into the mechanisms of antigen recognition by the immune system.

A set of genes that are turned on only within time-limited windows—including genes encoding RNA binding molecules, let-7 microRNAs and IMP1—control developmental switches in stem cell properties between fetal development and adulthood.

The sequencing of microbial genomes reveals that the presence of a particular microbial species in the gut may increase the risk of the autoimmune disease rheumatoid arthritis.

A single point mutation in a Ras activator leads to aberrant constitutive mTOR signaling in peripheral T cells that consequently accumulate as abnormal T helper cells and stimulate the production of autoantibodies by B cells.

The T cell repertoire can display immunodominance to an epitope as a result of optimal positive selection in the thymus by one self-peptide/MHC ligand.

A viral RNA has been identified as a specific MDA5 agonist in cells infected with encephalomyocarditis virus.