Female fertility relies on the ovarian follicles that form during fetal development. Some medical treatments, such as chemo- or radiotherapy, are toxic to follicles and therefore ovarian tissue cryopreservation is used as a standard method for fertility preservation. This method is used for both adults and prepubertal individuals, even if its efficiency for tissue collected before puberty is not well documented...Read more

Previously, it was believed that the presence of an oncogenic mutation within a cell was sufficient to drive tumour development. However, it is now understood that tissues may contain cells harbouring oncogenic mutations, but that these cells maintain a normal phenotype until an initiating factor promotes oncogenic transformation (Acha-Sagredo et al, 2021). Changes in the cellular milieu and tissue architecture, such as inflammation or parenchymal density, are thought to alter the behaviour of these cells, affecting the likelihood of oncogenic transformation (Ling et al, 2020; Singh et al, 2019). Nonetheless, the precise mechanisms that underlie cancer promotion, and their association with factors such as smoking or obesity, are not fully understood...Read more

G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) are a large family of cell surface receptors important for activating cellular responses. They are activated by many types of signals like light-sensitive compounds, odors, pheromones, hormones, and neurotransmitters and are involved in a wide range of diseases which have made them important drug targets. Receptor activity-modifying proteins (RAMPs) form complexes with the GPCRs and may regulate their cellular trafficking and pharmacology...Read more

Among the about 20,000 genes in the human proteome there are still many rather unknown but potentially interesting proteins that deserve some extra attention. Here we will focus on C10orf53, a gene specifically expressed in the testis...Read more

The brain is a high energy consuming tissue that needs a continuous supply of energy substrates from the circulation for optimal neurological function. Astrocytes are important for regulating the relationship between energy consumption and dynamic neuronal activity in the brain and are mainly involved in processes used for efficient transfer of energy substrates to neurons. Changes in astrocyte energy metabolism could therefore potentially disrupt essential neuronal processes, and this cell type has also been shown to undergo structural and biochemical changes in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Here the cell type distribution and cellular levels of the brain enzyme CKB, which is crucial for energy homeostasis and known to have decreased activity in AD, has been investigated to identify changes associated with neurodegenerative processes...Read more