Scientists Learn How to Unlock Destiny of Cell

According to Medical News Today scientists have learned how to unlock the destiny of a cell. Up until now once a cell has "chosen" what type of cell it will become, it locks into that for the remainder of its life. For example if a cell is destined to be a heart cell it will forever be a heart cell and cannot at any point become anything else. But a professor at UC Santa Barbara has discovered that breaking a biological signaling system in an embryo allows the change or assign a cell function. "Notch" signaling is a cell signaling system that causes cells to commit to a specific function, but when the signal was blocked by genetic manipulation, scientists found that they could force a cell to change its function.

By harnessing the genetics of a nematode worm, researchers found that shutting of the Notch signal in early embryos allowed them to change the destiny of the cell later on, long after they typically could. These cells were passed down through generations, and the cells blocked from the Notch signal still had an easier time being manipulated to being changed. For example if your parents were doctors, if you received this Notch signal you would be predetermined to be a doctor also, but the lack of this signal would allow you to be something different. This discovery could be the start of finding a way to make replacement organs or helping in producing tissues in the laboratory for injuries or diseases. Being able to use this technique to produce organs and tissues from cells in a laboratory could make a huge impact on the medical world.