An organoid is a miniaturized and simplified model of an organ created in vitro, designed to replicate the functional, structural, and biological complexity of that organ. In recent years, organoids have been widely used to study human tissues and organs. In general, the maturation of tissues and organs, as well as the normal functioning of the human body, depends on the crosstalk among different ...

On November 12, 2024, Associate Professor Li Xiajun’s laboratory in the School of Life Science and Technology in ShanghaiTech University  published a new study to further elucidate de novo and maintenance DNA methylation by DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs) in post-implantation embryos. This research was published in a paper titled “Regulation of de novo and maintenance DNA methylation by DNA ...

Pulmonary fibrosis is a chronic progressive disease and a common end-stage pathological manifestation of various chronic lung conditions, with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) being the most prevalent. The onset of IPF is characterized by repeated epithelial cell damage, leading to impaired epithelial regeneration and activation of lung fibroblasts into myofibroblasts. This process results in e...

Over the past few years, the widespread application of brain organoid models in research has been accompanied by advancements in the methods to construct brain organoids, allowing for more accurate modeling of the human brain in a dish. Common strategies for building brain organoids include unguided and guided differentiation, each serving a crucial role depending on the specific research context....

The Cajal body (CB), one of the biological condensates in the nucleus, was identified over 100 years ago and is involved in forming ribonucleoproteins (RNPs), such as snRNPs/snoRNPs. In addition, CBs play an essential role in nonsense-mediated mRNA decay, RNAi-based gene silencing, viral infection, and stress response. Several human diseases are associated with mutations in genes encoding CB compo...

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a severe neurodegenerative disease. Patients experience muscle weakness, paralysis, and atrophy due to the degeneration and death of both upper and lower motor neurons, eventually leading to breathing difficulties and death. Unfortunately, there is currently no effective treatment for this disease, and patients typically die within 3-5 years after diagnosis.&...

Autophagy is a conserved eukaryotic cellular process that delivers protein aggregates, damaged organelles, and invaded pathogens to the lysosome for degradation. Reticulophagy is a specialized form of autophagy that selectively breaks down damaged or redundant endoplasmic reticulum (ER) using the autophagy-lysosome pathway, thus maintaining ER homeostasis and dynamic equilibrium. Reticulophagy rec...

Abiotic stresses such as drought, salinity, and extreme temperatures threaten global crop yields. For optimum crop productivity, plants must efficiently combat these stresses. Rapid accumulation of proline under stress is a key feature and primary defense strategy in plants. Arabidopsis thaliana pyrroline-5-carboxylate synthase (AtP5CS), involved in proline metabolism, serves as the rate...

Led by Professor Liu Ji-Long in the School of Life Science and Technology, a research team has recently made strides in comprehending the structure and inhibition mechanisms of prokaryotic cytidine triphosphate (CTP) synthase, as detailed in the academic journal mLife in a paper entitled “Filamentation and inhibition of prokaryotic CTP synthase with ligands” on May ...

The testes are the site of sperm production and secretion of male hormones. Testicular aging not only leads to a decline in fertility but also significantly affects the quality of life for men. Late-onset hypogonadism (LOH) is a typical pathological change of testicular aging, characterized by testosterone deficiency and other related clinical symptoms. Prolonged testosterone deficiency can also c...

Through a 100-million-year evolution and adaptation, the eutherian placentae has become one ofthe most morphologically variable organs. Besides the fetal-maternal exchange, recent studies in mouse models have demonstrated that developmental defects in placentae could exert pronounced effects on embryo growth and development, leading to the necessity for high-throughput screens on modulators for mo...

Hepatocellular carcinoma, a highly prevalent malignant tumor in China, accounts for nearly half of the newly diagnosed cases and deaths worldwide annually. Among liver cancer patients, 70-80% are diagnosed with tumor spread and metastasis, rendering them ineligible for surgical intervention. However, a comprehensive understanding of the molecular characteristics specific to metastatic liver cancer...

Stress granules (SGs) are membrane-less organelles that transiently arise in the cytoplasm in response to adverse environmental conditions. They form through liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS). SGs are thought to regulate mRNA functions during stress and participate in cell-fate specification by orchestrating the depletion and release of cytosolic regulatory proteins. Much effort has been focus...

CorrectSequence Therapeutics (Correctseq), a biotechnology company incubated from ShanghaiTech using innovative base editing technology to help people with severe diseases, today announced that the company and the research teams from ShanghaiTech University, Wuhan University, Fudan University and Children’s Hospital of Fudan University published an article entitled “Base editing of the HBG ...