For more than a century, biology has largely viewed cellular communication as a chemical process. This chemical view has been very helpful in describing a large number of cellular signaling pathways. However, modern cell biology increasingly reveals a deeper reality. Cells are not simply bags of chemicals. They are highly organized information-processing systems operating across many scales simultaneously. Within every cell, billions of molecules continuously exchange infor

A previous post noted how microbes can help cancers in all stages of their development. Now, it has been found that the one-time microbe now the mitochondria is also vital for cancer to start, to grow, to survive and to metastasize. These microbes and the mitochondria use back and forth communication to help cancers in many ways. This post describes the recent research about mitochondria and its vital relationship to cancer. Mitochondria Joined Forces With Our Cells Two billi

Previous posts have described the very complex pathways that create membranes to surround the entire cell and to build vital cell compartments and well known organelles. A post noted how different types of fatty membranes are built for each organelle with many different complex shapes. These include mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum, the nucleus and many kinds of vesicles. Vesicles are used for transport, to combat invading microbes and to send information such as with neur

Two thousand years ago Aristotle wrote that cells lining blood vessels determine organs. Recently, he was found correct when capillary cells demonstrated elaborate communication with stem cells and many other cells. Unique capillary cells in each organ have dramatic effects on the life of the cells in that region. With elaborate communication between immune and blood cells, tissue stem cells and neurons, they are the brains of the local region. Now, another cell, called peric

Communication among cells is the basis of all immune and nervous system activity. Research continues to find large vocabularies of signals in different languages—neurotransmitters, cytokines, small RNAs, protein transcription factors, small lipid molecules and glycan sugars. The numbers of signals is growing fantastically with at least 50 neurotransmitters, 100 cytokines, thousands of transcription factors and small RNAs and as yet indefinable large number of ubiquitin tags,

The largest number of brain molecules are lipids (fats). Unique regulation of brain lipids is complex and contributes to many diseases. Surprisingly, it has been found that membrane lipids direct proteins and proteins direct lipids. Previous posts have discussed the importance of lipids in communication between brain cells using vesicles made with fatty membranes. The rapid complex process where lipid covered vesicles transmit neuro transmitters at synapses uses 80% of all o

It is well known that neurons send a variety of intelligent critical signals to other neurons, glia, and immune cells using neurotransmitters, vesicles of several types, cytokines and nanotubes between cells. Elaborate back and forth communication between immune cells uses a wide variety of cytokines, neurotransmitters and vesicles with genetic material. Recently, intelligent decision-making by many other cells was discovered, including epithelial cells lining the intestine a

Dendrites have been considered passive calculators of input signals. In fact, they are extremely dynamic and can produce their own electrical spikes. Dendrites have a vast array of different ways to function when helping to determine the next axon action potential. Recent research has begun to scratch the surface of the complexity of dendrite calculations. A previous post described details about the ever changing and varied dendrite spines and necks with many unique shapes th

It was once thought that to prove the cause of an infection, a microbe is found. The microbe is isolated from the unhealthy person. Later, this infection is reproduced in an otherwise healthy animal by injecting that particular microbe. This approach is described in Koch’s Postulates and was the dogma of microbiology for over a hundred years. However, current research about back and forth elaborate intelligent communication between cells, including microbes, has shown that de

Living among trillions of microbes, it is necessary to determine which are going to cause disease. This is done by recognizing patterns with special receptors on immune cells—pattern recognition receptors or PPRs. Once triggered, receptors activate powerful mechanisms to cause inflammation that is life saving but, also, can attack our own cells with chronic inflammation and autoimmune diseases. In fact, as with every other critical aspect of physiology, pattern recognition re

Human cells are massively larger and more complex than bacteria and yet microbes keep up relentless intelligent warfare. Previous posts documented surprisingly sophisticated, multi level attacks by microbes using protein molecules and micro RNA against plants and animals. Recently, new microbe techniques have been discovered that specifically target organelles of the human cell. These complex assaults can directly manipulate genes to produce unique proteins. These altered pro

Small lining cells along the border of the brain’s ventricles are the gateway and supervisor of the relationship between the brain and the rest of the body, including the immune system. The choroid plexus cells produce cerebral spinal fluid, which bathes the brain and provides a cushion. But, it, also, performs a vast amount of other much more complex functions. The fluid filled ventricles are a critical source of sophisticated communication between brain and immune cells.The

How can one protein molecule function as if it is a brain? It is able to monitor a large amount of different external and internal information and use this data to make critical decisions and take many simultaneous actions. The decisions involve multiple pathways controlling cellular growth and the amount of protein manufacturing; actions include triggering specific genetic networks for many different tasks including balancing of basic metabolism and energy production. It is

Several intelligent viruses have been featured in previous posts. Herpes has a very complex life style with more than 70 genes—traveling up and down the neuron and in and out of the skin cell. HIV has an extraordinary set of complex behaviors with only 9 genes—travelling with critical proteins in its capsid, evading immune cells with multiple techniques and manipulating the cell’s complex nuclear machinery. How all of this can be accomplished with only 9 genes is not clear. N

Several posts have documented the unusual complex behavior of viruses. In particular, a recent post, The Remarkable Intelligent Varicella Virus, described a wide range of different complex behaviors for this small herpes virus. Somehow, it is able to enter and exit skin and nerve cells; travel up and down along the microtubules of the axons by commandeering the motors; move in and out of the cell’s nucleus; and alter its own behavior in different circumstances. The varicella

The common wisdom that myelin is just an insulator to make faster neuronal communication has been overthrown by recent research that finds much more complexity in how myelin is used by the brain. The old “neuron doctrine” (one of many useless dogmas) was that each neuron sends a signal to the next neuron, and so on, in computer like fashion. In fact, the process is vastly more complex and variable and the new myelin code adds to brain complexity in very important ways. Resear

A view of DNA from 2014 which continues to unexplained by modern scientific theories.

Varicella zoster virus is an alpha herpes virus that has been described in a previous post as having remarkable capabilities and a very complex lifestyle—the ability to travel up and down axons in a neuron, to move in and out of several different types of cells, to travel and multiply in T cells, to fool several different nuclear pore complexes, to commandeer microtubule motors, and to alter its own behavior pattern in different settings. How can the remarkable intelligent va

Evidence of intelligent behavior in subcellular structures.

As both unique immune cells and unique brain cells that constantly change shape and have numerous different functions, are microglia the most intelligent brain cells? Microglia travel independently, not attached to any structure, constantly circling a territory with extended arms repeatedly tapping all axons, dendrites and synapses looking to detect any suboptimal functioning. Their constant surveillance of the brain protects against any microbe invaders, demyelination, traum