For the first half of the twentieth century, the sensory cilium, which is a non-motile projection that most mammalian cells possess, was thought to be a functionless vestigial structure. A series of ...

Cilia and flagella are evolutionarily conserved, microtubule-based, hair-like organelles that protrude from the cell surface. They are the fundamental units of motion in cellular biology, and also ...

New research has unraveled the mystery of how microscopic cilia coordinate to move and propel marine creatures through water. Cilia are tiny, hair-like protrusions found in many organisms, including ...

Cilia are ubiquitous on cells, playing a variety of roles, Dr. Nicastro explained. While non-motile cilia serve as sensors for chemical and mechanical signals, motile cilia rhythmically beat to propel ...

Forty years ago, doctoral student Joel Rosenbaum asked this question: How are cilia, the tiny thread-like appendages protruding from most cells, formed from molecules in the interior of cells? The ...

Now, in a recently published Journal of Cell Biology paper, scientists used a newer electron microscopy technique, called volume electron microscopy (vEM), to examine how primary cilia on developing ...

A group of rare diseases called ciliopathies -- polycystic kidney disease notable among them -- emerge from defects in cilia. These are the tiny hairlike structures on the surface of almost every cell ...

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Cystic Fibrosis, a fatal lung disease striking one in 2,500 people, may be caused by a failure of the cilia to maintain the level of water associated with the mucus in the lungs, causing the natural ...

Nerve cells in the brain make elaborate connections and exchange lightning-quick messages that captivate scientists. But these cells also sport simpler, hairlike protrusions called cilia. Long ...

The motile cilia that line the epithelial tissue of the airways are considered the first line of defense against pathogens that cause several respiratory diseases. The airway epithelium consists of ...

A coronavirus infection can mow down the forests of hairlike cilia that coat our airways, destroying a crucial barrier to keeping the virus from lodging deep in the lungs. Normally, those cilia move ...