Cracking the code of nutrient segregation
New research on fruit flies provides key insights into the nutrients essential for embryo development.
The hidden role of lipid droplets in fertility and beyond
Research on fruit flies led by Michael Welte, a professor of biology, finds that lipid droplets play a role in cellular changes necessary for the growth of the egg—and could affect fertility in myriad organisms.
Rochester to advance research in biological imaging through new grant
A multidisciplinary collaboration will create a new light-sheet microscope on campus, allowing 3D imaging of complex cellular structures.
Lipid droplets play crucial roles beyond fat storage
You may not know it, but whenever you eat cheese, ice cream, or yogurt, you are also ingesting microscopic lipid droplets. Long thought of merely as formless blobs of fat, lipids are now proving crucial for understanding how embryos survive and how obesity affects the body.
When temperatures drop, newly-discovered process helps fruit flies cope
Rochester biologist Michael Welte and his team made their discovery while studying the internal mechanisms of the egg cell of the fruit fly, known as Drosophila. What keeps the assembly line functioning—based on the new research—is a protein called Klar.
Protein anchors help keep embryonic development “just right”
Findings on the cellular-level regulation of proteins called histones by lipid droplets, or “fat depots,” shines light on chromosome production – and possible manipulation of that process.
Rethinking Toxic Proteins on the Cellular Level
Histones are proteins needed to assemble DNA molecules into chromosomes. New research at the University of Rochester is causing a fundamental shift in the concept of histone balance and the mechanism behind it.