Journal Clubs

Ueli Schibler explains why the phenotype of a mutation in a codon of the ‘21st amino acid’ selenium cysteine was unexpectedly specific.

Rebecca Taylor discusses the elegance and importance of early discoveries from the Walter laboratory on the unfolded protein response, and why they have become landmark studies.

Senescent cells secrete a multitude of factors that modulate their local environment — a phenomenon known as senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP). David Bernard highlights that the SASP secretome can be flexibly regulated, resulting in different types of SASP, which contributes to the versatility of responses triggered by senescent cells.

Kikuë Tachibana discusses some of the key findings of the seminal works of Sir John Gurdon on nuclear reprogramming and how, by being examples of scientific rigour, they have inspired her own research.

Philip Cohen highlights how two studies from the laboratory of Zhijian Chen, published in 2000 and 2001, started a new era in the study of signal transduction pathways and the roles of ubiquitin chains.

Eva Nogales looks back at the early days of structure determination of cytoskeletal components.

Navdeep Chandel highlights a study published in 1996 that — by showing that mitochondria can release cytochromecto initiate apoptosis — changed his view of the role of mitochondria in physiology.

Christopher Chen highlights the early studies of mechanoregulation of cell–matrix adhesions that established mechanobiology as a cross-discplinary research field

John Abelson recounts the discovery of self-splicing RNA.

Daniel Gerlich discusses how a study by the Hyman laboratory introduced the theory of liquid phase separation to cell biology and its implications for the understanding of cell organization and function.

A modification of Meselson and Stahl's density gradient centrifugation method and a rare Texan yeast helped show that eukaryotic ribosomes dissociate and reform during translation.

Thomas D. Pollard discusses the early work of Thompson and Wolpert on cytoplasmic extract from amoebae, which laid the foundation for studies of actin-driven cell motility.

Allan Jacobson reminds us of how a study by Deveret al. published in 1992 connected several data on translational regulation, bringing attention to its crucial role in the regulation of gene expression.

Kai Simons discusses how MDCK cells grown on semi-permeable filters have become a model for studying apico-basal cell polarity with the use of viruses.

Li and Lodish describe how a shift in our understanding of the molecular basis of sickle cell anaemia has led to clinical success.

Caroline Dean discusses the mechanisms underlying the storage and inheritance of epigenetic memory.

Edith Heard describes how the discovery of lamina-associated domains changed her thinking about the mechanisms of X-chromosome inactivation and gene regulation.

Physically bridging an enhancer to a β-globin gene increased transcription and explained how enhancers could function over long distances.

Matthias Mann describes a 1992 paper by Donald Hunt and colleagues that revolutionized the use of mass spectrometry in molecular biology.

Laurent Blanchoin reminds us of a seminal paper by Tom Pollard reporting the meticulous measurement of rate constants of actin assembly, and highlights its contribution to quantitative understanding of actin filament dynamics as well as its impact on his own research interests.