Cytoplasm News and Research

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Researchers characterize novel lysosomal PQ protein linked to cystinosis

Researchers at the Université Paris Descartes/CNRS and the Université libre de Bruxelles have made a major breakthrough in the study of cystinosis, a genetic disease that can lead to serious disorders, notably fatal kidney failure.

23 Nov 2012

New pathway appears to play a major role in information processing in the brain

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have identified a new pathway that appears to play a major role in information processing in the brain. Their research also offers insight into how imbalances in this pathway could contribute to cognitive abnormalities in humans.

16 Nov 2012

Researchers use baker's yeast to identify new therapies for Lou Gehrig's disease

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also called Lou Gehrig's disease, is a devastatingly cruel neurodegenerative disorder that robs sufferers of the ability to move, speak and, finally, breathe.

29 Oct 2012

Study identifies essential mechanism that regulates calcium flow into mitochondria

Most healthy cells rely on a complicated process to produce the fuel ATP. Knowing how ATP is produced by the cell's energy storehouse - the mitochondria -- is important for understanding a cell's normal state, as well as what happens when things go wrong, for example in cancer, cardiovascular disease, neurodegeneration, and many rare disorders of the mitochondria.

26 Oct 2012

Insight into calcium pumps in cells

When animals and plants are exposed to influences such as bacterial attack, odour and cold, calcium ions flow into the cells. The calcium provides the cells with a signal about what is going on outside, but as high concentrations of calcium are toxic to the cells, it must be quickly pumped out again.

22 Oct 2012

Rapamycin may delay onset of Parkinson's or AD

Rapamycin, a drug used to prevent rejection in transplants, could delay the onset of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

16 Oct 2012

Male infertility linked to an enzyme complex issue

An enzyme complex present in sperm plasma membranes plays an important role in the overproduction of reactive oxygen species and oxidative stress in sperm with abnormal morphology, researchers have shown.

15 Oct 2012

Common RNA pathway links frontotemporal lobar dementia with ALS

Two proteins previously found to contribute to ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, have divergent roles. But a new study, led by researchers at the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, shows that a common pathway links them.

1 Oct 2012

Small fragments of keratin protein in the eye play a key role in warding off pathogens

When it comes to germ-busting power, the eyes have it, according to a discovery by University of California, Berkeley, researchers that could lead to new, inexpensive antimicrobial drugs.

25 Sep 2012

Pancreatic B-cell dedifferentiation leads to decline in insulin production in type 2 diabetes

Scientists generally think that reduced insulin production by the pancreas, a hallmark of type 2 diabetes, is due to the death of the organ's beta cells. However, a new study by Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) researchers shows that beta cells do not die but instead revert to a more fundamental, undifferentiated cell type.

15 Sep 2012

Scientists reveal how TREX proteins act as passport for transfer of cell blueprints

Decoded process could hold the key to future treatments for a wide range of chronic health problems including Motor Neuron Disease, myotonic dystrophy and a wide range of cancers, University of Sheffield scientists have revealed.

16 Aug 2012

Possible molecular link between circadian rhythm disturbances and increased inflammatory response

Scientists have known for some time that throwing off the body's circadian rhythm can negatively affect body chemistry. In fact, workers whose sleep-wake cycles are disrupted by night shifts are more susceptible to chronic inflammatory diseases such as diabetes, obesity and cancer.

2 Aug 2012

Orc1 mutations may explain pathology in manifestations of Meier-Gorlin syndrome

Research published Aug. 1 by scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) links gene mutations found in some patients with Meier-Gorlin syndrome (MGS) with specific cellular dysfunctions that are thought to give rise to a particularly extreme version of dwarfism, small brain size, and other manifestations of abnormal growth which generally characterize that rare condition.

1 Aug 2012

Protein associated with Huntington’s and other neurodegenerative diseases has several brain-specific forms

A protein essential for metabolism and recently associated with neurodegenerative diseases also occurs in several brain-specific forms. This discovery emerged in the course of a research project funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF, the findings of which have now been published in the journal Human Molecular Genetics.

23 Jul 2012

UMMS scientists identify new genetic mutation that causes familial ALS

A new genetic mutation that causes familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a fatal neurological disorder also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease, has been identified by a team of scientists led by researchers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS).

16 Jul 2012

New paper documents discovery of novel lipids, including MC3

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, a leading RNAi therapeutics company, and collaborators announced today the publication of a scientific paper documenting the discovery of novel lipids used in second generation lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) for systemic delivery of RNAi therapeutics.

14 Jul 2012

Toxins and cell death: Interview with Professor Denise Montell

There are multiple kinds of cell death. Cells can undergo programmed cell death, which is a series of events that undergoes a predictable order at certain times during development.

6 Jul 2012

Study sheds light on the assembly of ribosome

Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have identified a series of intricate biochemical steps that lead to the successful production of proteins, the basic working units of any cell.

6 Jul 2012

Protein kinase A activated in the nucleus as well as the cytoplasm

Using a new tool allowing proteins in a living cell to be manipulated in real time, researchers at Johns Hopkins have stumbled across the answer to a longstanding debate about where and how a certain protein is turned on in the cell. Reporting in the February 2012 issue of Nature Chemical Biology, scientists show that protein kinase A is also activated in the nucleus rather than inside the cell’s body, a challenge to traditional beliefs.

27 Jun 2012

FOXO3a transcription factor actually promotes growth of anaplastic thyroid cancer

A molecule widely believed to fight many forms of cancer actually helps deadly thyroid tumors grow, and cancer therapies now being tested in humans might boost the activity of this newly revealed bad guy, researchers at Mayo Clinic in Florida say.

21 Jun 2012