The same tiny force sensors that help us hear faint sounds are now being linked to how embryos develop. In our ears, special ...

The result is a feedback loop: the cell's shape influences the microtubule arrangement; this arrangement, in turn, affects the cell's shape, which modulates the microtubules, and so on.

Crucially, the study also showed that an inflammatory signal called TNFalpha strongly activated the NF-kappaB survival signal in mesenchymal-like cells, but only weakly did so in epithelial-like cells ...

“The epithelial cells are making a signal kind of like a scream: ‘We got injured, we need repair, you need to come over here,’” says Sun-Min Yu, an engineer at the University of ...