A protein that controls when genes are switched on or off plays a key role in specific areas of the brain to regulate metabolism, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found.
UNC's Henrik Dohlman is like a mechanic for cells. He takes them apart to see how they function. He can tell you what part is like a gas pedal and which part is like the brakes. Now he’s can show us why these brakes don’t work the same even in cells that are genetically identical.
Cold-blooded animals cannot regulate their body temperature, so their cells are stressed when facing temperature extremes. Worse still, even at slightly colder temperatures, some biological processes in the cell are slowed down more than others, which should throw the cells’ delicate chemical balance out of whack. Yet, those cells manage to keep their biological processes coordinated. Now researchers have found out how they do that.
Researchers at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Research Campus have developed a new computational method that can rapidly track the three-dimensional movements of cells in such data-rich images. Using the method, the Janelia scientists can essentially automate much of the time-consuming process of reconstructing an animal's developmental building plan cell by cell.
Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and their collaborators have found that ancient enzymes, known for their fundamental role in translating genetic information into proteins, evolved myriad other functions in humans.
The protein CENP-A, which is integrated into human DNA at the centromere on each chromosome, has a vital role in cell division. Work from Whitehead Institute Member Iain Cheeseman’s lab describes how the vital and tightly controlled replenishment of CENP-A progresses.
Study finds that the NBR1 protein plays a critical role in regulating obesity-induced inflammation that leads to metabolic disease. The findings suggest a new approach to targeting the inflammatory links between obesity and metabolic disease to prevent and treat type 2 diabetes.
A signaling pathway once thought to have little if any role during embryogenesis is a key player in the formation of the front-most portion of developing vertebrate embryos. Moreover, signals emanating from this region—referred to as the “extreme anterior domain” (EAD)—orchestrate the complex choreography that gives rise to proper facial structure.
A team of researchers has devised a Pac-Man-style power pellet that gets normally mild-mannered cells to gobble up their undesirable neighbors. The development may point the way to therapies that enlist patients’ own cells to better fend off infection and even cancer, the researchers say.
Circulating tumor cells spread ovarian cancer through the bloodstream, homing in on a sheath of abdominal fatty tissue where it can grow and metastasize to other organs, scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center report in Cancer Cell.
Researchers shed new light on key mechanism in accumulation of protein plaques in Alzheimer’s disease patients; could open new avenues for developing a cure for Alzheimer's disease, which affects 5.2 million in the U.S. alone.
Scientists have identified a protein that is essential to the survival of E. coli bacteria, and consider the protein a potential new target for antibiotics.
New research underway at KU Cancer Center is focusing on the mutant version of the p53 tumor protein and how it is vulnerable to certain compounds.
The results indicated that the science of pseudogene expression analysis may very well play a key role in explaining how cancer occurs by helping medical experts in the discovery of new biomarkers. The study’s findings appear in today’s issue of Nature Communications.
Research led by investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center helps explain the heat-generating properties of brown fat, a possible to key to weight loss.
Deep inside the brains of people with dementia and Lou Gehrig’s disease, globs of abnormal protein gum up the inner workings of brain cells – dooming them to an early death. But boosting those cells’ natural ability to clean up those clogs might hold the key to better treatment for such conditions.
A team of researchers from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) and Salk Institute for Biological Studies has shown for the first time that stem cells created using different methods produce differing cells. The findings, published in the July 2, 2014 online issue of Nature, provide new insights into the basic biology of stem cells and could ultimately lead to improved stem cell therapies.
The evolution of the ribosome, a large molecular structure found in the cells of all species, has been revealed in unprecedented detail in a new study.
Scientists with Texas A&M AgriLife Research have found a “Trojan horse” way to deliver proteins into live human cells without damaging them. The finding, published in this month’s Nature Methods, is expected to be easily adopted for use in medical research to find cures and treatments for a wide range of diseases, according to the team’s lead scientist, Dr. Jean-Philippe Pellois, an associate professor of biochemistry at Texas A&M University.
University of Washington researchers have shown that a favorable electrical property is present in a type of protein found in organs that repeatedly stretch and retract. These findings are the first that clearly track this phenomenon, called ferroelectricity, occurring at the molecular level in biological tissues.
Biologists at UC San Diego have found the “missing link” in the chemical system that enables animal cells to produce ribosomes—the thousands of protein “factories” contained within each cell that manufacture all of the proteins needed to build tissue and sustain life.
A team of scientists from Duke Medicine, the University of Michigan and Stanford University has determined the underlying architecture of a cellular signaling complex involved in the body’s response to stimuli such as light and pain.
Case Western Reserve University scientists have discovered how a family of proteins — cation diffusion facilitators (CDFs) — regulates an important cellular cycle where a cell’s energy generated is converted to necessary cellular functions. The finding could eventually to significant breakthroughs in the treatment of Parkinson’s, chronic liver disease and heart disease.
Researchers at The Johns Hopkins University report they have deciphered the inner workings of a protein called YiiP that prevents the lethal buildup of zinc inside bacteria. They say understanding YiiP’s movements will help in the design of drugs aimed at modifying the behavior of ZnT proteins, eight human proteins that are similar to YiiP, which play important roles in hormone secretion and in signaling between neurons.
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists have discovered how an important “on” switch is attached to the machinery that cells rely on to adapt thousands of proteins to meet changing conditions. The research appears in the current issue of the journal Cell.
Gene mutation sets off accumulation of unhealthy beta cells that can no longer produce insulin needed to control blood sugar. Researcher who lives with type 1 diabetes published genetic finding in Cell.
Pancreatic cancer tumors addicted to mutant Kras signaling for their growth and progression have a ready-made substitute to tap if they’re ever forced to go cold-turkey on the mutant oncogene, scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center report in the journal Cell.
Researchers at UAB have shed new light on how gliomas migrate in the brain. The findings show gliomas disrupt normal neural connections and hijack control of blood vessels. The study provides insight on how glioma cells spread throughout the brain and potentially offers a tantalizing opportunity for therapy.
For an organ that only functions for nine months, the placenta has been taking the science world by storm. One company that is banking on the therapeutic powers of the placenta is Pluristem Therapeutics, a key player in the regenerative medicine space.
Researchers have identified hundreds of long non-coding RNAs expressed in developing and adult lungs. Many of these non-protein-coding RNAs in the lung regulate gene expression by opening and closing the DNA scaffolding on neighboring genes.
Biologists at The Scripps Research Institute have discovered a crucial process that regulates development of blood vessels. The finding may lead to treatments for disorders involving abnormal blood vessel growth, including diabetic retinopathy and cancer.
Brain cells, called astrocytes because of their star-shaped appearance, can monitor and respond to nearby neural activity, but only after being activated by the fight-or-flight chemical norepinephrine. Because astrocytes can alter the activity of neurons, the findings suggest that astrocytes may help control the brain’s ability to focus.
Chronic tissue inflammation is typically associated with obesity and metabolic disease, but new research from UT Southwestern Medical Center now finds that a level of “healthy” inflammation is necessary to prevent metabolic diseases, such as fatty liver.
New research in mice may finally open the door to solving long-standing mysteries about dystonia -- uncontrollable twisting and stiffening of neck and limb muscles -- and developing new options for patients who experience it alone or as a complication of conditions such as Parkinson’s disease.
In a further test of a novel theory that suggests autism is the consequence of abnormal cell communication, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine report that an almost century-old drug approved for treating sleeping sickness also restores normal cellular signaling in a mouse model of autism, reversing symptoms of the neurological disorder in animals that were the human biological age equivalent of 30 years old.
It’s broadly assumed that cells degrade and recycle their own old or damaged organelles, but researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Kennedy Krieger Institute have discovered that some neurons transfer unwanted mitochondria – the tiny power plants inside cells – to supporting glial cells called astrocytes for disposal.
Confirming what neurocomputational theorists have long suspected, researchers at the Dignity Health Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Ariz. and University of California, San Diego School of Medicine report that the human brain locks down episodic memories in the hippocampus, committing each recollection to a distinct, distributed fraction of individual cells.
Before it can fertilize an egg, a sperm has to bind to and bore through an outer egg layer known as the zona pellucida. Researchers now identify the protein in the zona pellucida that sperm latch onto.
Orexin proteins, which are blamed for spontaneous daytime sleepiness, also play a crucial role in bone formation, according to findings by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers.
The lab of Brian Strahl, PhD, at the UNC School of Medicine, has found that the enzyme Set2 is a major player in DNA repair, a complicated and crucial process that can lead to the development of cancer cells if the repair goes wrong.
New findings from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center add a surprising new dimension to the understanding of antibody repertoires and their potential to better fight disease.
University of Toronto biologists leading an investigation into the cells that regulate proper brain function, have identified and located the key players whose actions contribute to afflictions such as epilepsy and schizophrenia. The discovery is a major step toward developing improved treatments for these and other neurological disorders.
A team led by researchers at The Scripps Research Institute has used advanced electron microscopy techniques to determine the first accurate structural map of Mediator, one of the largest and most complex “molecular machines” in cells.
Twenty-seven chemical elements are considered to be essential for human life. Now there is a 28th – bromine. In a paper published Thursday by the journal Cell, Vanderbilt University researchers establish for the first time that bromine, among the 92 naturally-occurring chemical elements in the universe, is the 28th element essential for tissue development in all animals, from primitive sea creatures to humans.
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have, for the first time, described the sequence of early cellular responses to a high-fat diet, one that can result in obesity-induced insulin resistance and diabetes. The findings also suggest potential molecular targets for preventing or reversing the process.
Studying mice, researchers have found a way to prevent nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, the most common cause of chronic liver disease worldwide. Blocking a path that delivers dietary fructose to the liver prevented mice from developing the condition, according to investigators at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
A new study from the Monell Center reports that oral taste cells contain receptors for glucocorticoid “stress hormones”. The findings suggest glucocorticoids may act directly on taste cells to affect how they respond to sugars and other taste stimuli under conditions of stress.
Like exploring the inner workings of a clock, a team of University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers is digging into the inner workings of the tiny cellular machines called spliceosomes, which help make all of the proteins our bodies need to function. In a recent study published in the journal Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, UW-Madison’s David Brow, Samuel Butcher and colleagues have captured images of this machine, revealing details never seen before.
The combined action of two enzymes, Srs2 and Exo1, prevents and repairs common genetic mutations in growing yeast cells, according to a new study led by scientists at NYU Langone Medical Center.
In any animal’s lifecycle, the shift from egg cell to embryo is a critical juncture that requires a remarkably dynamic process that ultimately transforms a differentiated, committed oocyte to a totipotent cell capable of giving rise to any cell type in the body. The lab of Whitehead Member Terry Orr-Weaver conducted perhaps the most comprehensive look yet at changes in translation and protein synthesis during a developmental change, using the oocyte-to-embryo transition in Drosophila as a model system.
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