Ubiquitin News and Research

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Ubiquitin is a small regulatory protein that has been found in almost all cells (''ubiquitously'') with nuclei (eukaryotes). It directs proteins to recycling and other functions.

Novel technology enables systematic analysis of linear ubiquitination targets

Ubiquitin is a small protein that can be linked to other cellular proteins, thereby controlling and modulating their functions. The attachment occurs in many different forms, either as single molecule or in the form of distinct ubiquitin chains, leading to diverse conformations and varying cellular outcomes.

20 Mar 2017

Researchers unravel protein dosage compensation mechanism in genes

Researchers at Okayama University report in PLOS Genetics which genes from the yeast genome exhibit dosage compensation — the ability to temper protein production when the corresponding encoding gene’s copy number increases.

16 Mar 2017

Biologists develop new way to inhibit cancer cell cleanup mechanism

The genomes of cancer cells--cells that do not obey signals to stop reproducing--are riddled with genetic mutations, causing them inadvertently to make many dysfunctional proteins.

28 Feb 2017

Scientists discover how genetic mutation disarms tumor-suppressing BRCA1 proteins in breast cancer

Of the more than 3 million people with breast cancer in the United Stated, about 10 percent carry an inherited mutation in their BRCA1 gene. In health, the gene is responsible for suppressing tumors. In disease, the gene goes terribly awry.

28 Feb 2017

Scientists discover 'Achilles' heel' of tumor-suppressing protein that drives prostate cancer metastasis

Researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory have discovered that a protein called Importin-11 protects the anti-cancer protein PTEN from destruction by transporting it into the cell nucleus. A study they publish today in The Journal of Cell Biology suggests that the loss of Importin-11 may destabilize PTEN, leading to the development of lung, prostate, and other cancers.

13 Feb 2017

Scientists generate new insights into intricate molecular underpinnings of ubiquitin signaling

Scientists at the University of Würzburg have generated new insights into the intricate molecular underpinnings of ubiquitin signaling. Their results may provide new avenues for cancer therapy.

13 Feb 2017

Study highlights need for increased vigilance when using GFAP, UCH-L-1 as potential biomarkers of mTBI

In patients who suffered acute orthopedic injuries, two proposed biomarkers for mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) were not able to distinguish between patients who did or did not have mTBI.

7 Feb 2017

Researchers find chemical link between two problem proteins that cause Parkinson's disease

Researchers report they have discovered how two problem proteins known to cause Parkinson's disease are chemically linked, suggesting that someday, both could be neutralized by a single drug designed to target the link.

2 Feb 2017

Faults in natural waste disposal system may play key role in neurodegenerative diseases

A fault with the natural waste disposal system that helps to keep our brain cell 'batteries' healthy may contribute to neurodegenerative disease, a new study has found.

25 Jan 2017

Researchers reveal central role of new key players in meiosis

Where would we be without meiosis and recombination? For a start, none of us sexually reproducing organisms would be here, because that's how sperm and eggs are made. And when meiosis doesn't work properly, it can lead to infertility, miscarriage, birth defects and developmental disorders.

24 Jan 2017

Scientists identify Smurf1 protein that plays role in autophagy of TB bacteria

UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have identified a protein that is central to the immune system's ability to recognize and destroy the bacterium responsible for the global tuberculosis (TB) epidemic.

12 Jan 2017

Scientists discover gene that may open new door to developing treatments for Alzheimer's disease

Scientists at the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB) of the University of Luxembourg have identified a gene that may provide a new starting point for developing treatments for Alzheimer's disease (AD).

11 Jan 2017

Researchers discover biological pathway that plays vital role in tumor development

An international team led by researchers from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology's Rappaport Faculty of Medicine and the Technion Integrated Cancer Center has discovered a biological pathway that plays an important role in tumor development.

7 Dec 2016

Researchers find new therapeutic target of biomedical interest in ischemic injury research

An international scientific team has developed a new small molecule -VH298- which can provoke a hypoxic response controlled from outside the cells, according to a study recently published in the magazine Nature Communications with its first authors being the expert Carles Galdeano, Beatriu de Pinós researcher at the Department of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Technology and Physical Chemistry of the Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Sciences and the Institute of Biomedicine of the University of Barcelona, and Julianty Frost, from the University of Dundee.

15 Nov 2016

UGA researchers find new way to improve cancer-killing power of chemotherapy

University of Georgia researchers have found a way to enhance chemotherapy's cancer-killing powers, bringing science one step closer to a more complete cancer treatment.

2 Nov 2016

Researchers develop new, highly-specific functional imaging probe to detect hypoxic tumors

Tumor detection using targeted fluorescent imaging probes is a promising technology that takes advantage of specific molecular events occurring in cancer tissues.

24 Oct 2016

Novel innovation could help scientists study new treatments for mitochondrial diseases

A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences from the University of Missouri has succeeded in creating embryos with "heteroplasmy," or the presence of both maternal and paternal mitochondrial DNA.

23 Aug 2016

NIH researchers discover rare, lethal inflammatory disease that affects young children

National Institutes of Health researchers have discovered a rare and sometimes lethal inflammatory disease - otulipenia - that primarily affects young children. They have also identified anti-inflammatory treatments that ease some of the patients' symptoms: fever, skin rashes, diarrhea, joint pain and overall failure to grow or thrive.

23 Aug 2016

Moffitt researchers discover novel way to control SETDB1 protein upregulated in cancer

Cancer is a group of more than 100 different diseases. All are driven by cells and genes that escape the normal process of division and begin their own plan to replicate in the body.

8 Jul 2016

Researcher identifies how Itch protein inhibits colonic inflammation and carcinogenesis

Venuprasad Poojary, PhD, an associate investigator at Baylor Institute for Immunology Research (BIIR), part of Baylor Scott & White Research Institute, reported this week in the journal Nature Immunology the role of a key protein in the regulatory pathway that is involved in limiting colon inflammation and tumor growth.

30 Jun 2016