Analysis and decoding of the language of cells (A Royal Society Exhibition). (360G-Wellcome-080202_Z_06_Z)

Analysis and decoding of the language of cells (A Royal Society exhibition) A proposal for the above exhibit has been selected for the Royal Society Summer Exhibition (July 2006) and the 2006 Glasgow Science Exhibition (September). There is no funding associated with acceptance for these prestigious events. Both events attract a large number of scientists, politicians, policy makers and members of the public. They represent a major annual opportunity to increase awareness of important scientific topics and breakthroughs. We will show how timelapse microscopy using proteins from fireflies and jelly fish has transformed cell biology. This will involve a luminescence practical demonstration and demonstrations using pictures and videos. We will use the NF-kappaB signalling system to demonstrate the problem that each mammalian cell has in sensing its environment and in making correct decisions regarding the cell's fate. We will show our new data that suggests that this signal works in a different way from that previously suspected. Rather than being a simple switch, we have found that NF-kappaB proteins move repeatedly (oscillate) between the cytoplasm and the nucleus of the cell. These oscillations control the switching on (and off) of a large number of genes. It now seems likely that the timing of these oscillations encodes the message. This concept, developed using systems biology approaches, changes the way that we think about cell signals suggesting that period (FM) may be as important as the amplitude of a signal (AM). We will demonstrate how this relates to cell division, cell death, cancer (particularly neurobalstoma in children) and inflammatory disease.