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.

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

Research describes how gene BRCA1 plays vital role in DNA repair

Scientists at the University of Birmingham are a step closer to understanding the role of the gene BRCA1. Changes in this gene are associated with a high risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer.

30 May 2016

Single enzyme doing the work of a trio could offer precise way to treat diseases

Researchers identified a single enzyme doing the work of a trio thought necessary to control a common cellular signaling process being pursued as a therapeutic target.

24 May 2016

Biomedical researcher wins 2016 Gutenberg Research Award for work on programmed cell death

The Gutenberg Research College of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz has chosen to give the 2016 Gutenberg Research Award to American biomedical researcher Dr. Vishva Dixit for his groundbreaking work in the field of programmed cell death.

4 May 2016

Rockefeller scientists study molecular mechanism that causes linker cell death in worms

Some cells are meant to live, and some are meant to die. The linker cell of Caenorhabditis elegans, a tiny worm that is a favored model organism for biologists, is among those destined for termination.

11 Apr 2016

Blood test detects mild traumatic brain injury for up to a week

Researchers report findings of a blood biomarker that consistently detects mild to moderate traumatic brain injury for up to 7 days and quantifies the degree of damage.

31 Mar 2016

CNIO researchers find panoramic view of proteins that intervene in a cellular process

Three years ago, the research team directed by Óscar Fernández-Capetillo, head of the Genomic Instability Group at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre, obtained, for the first time, a panoramic view of the proteins that intervene in one of the most important and delicate cellular processes: the copying of genetic material during cellular division. They observed that the parts of the genome where the DNA was copied were also very rich in the modification by some very particular proteins, SUMOylations, and poor in others, ubiquitinations, but they were unable to understand why.

8 Mar 2016

Scientists solve atomic structure of ubiquitin ligase complex that plays key role in protein degradation

Scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute have solved the atomic structure of a unique ubiquitin ligase complex. Ubiquitin is best known for its role in protein degradation, but more recently seen as important for cell signaling, DNA repair, anti-inflammatory, and immune responses.

21 Jan 2016