Our bodies and organs are shielded from the external environment by tissue barriers like the skin. These barriers must be tightly sealed to prevent unwanted substances from entering. This sealing is ...

Cells in humans and all vertebrates are tightly packed together to form organs and glands — tissues essential for living, breathing and moving. “In humans, three families of membrane proteins in ...

Cell-to-cell junctions were visualized by ZO1-GFP, and the dynamics of cell junctions were captured by movies. When the cells indicated by * were spontaneously stretched, a continuous belt of cell ...

Researchers have identified a previously unknown mechanism by which the kidney precisely controls calcium excretion. The claudin-14 protein plays a key role in this process: It displaces the ...

As a human embryo grows, a set of molecules directs cells as they multiply and take on specific identities and spatial positions within the embryo. In one crucial step known as gastrulation, these ...