Cell Membrane News and Research

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Protein found in the saliva of deer ticks prevents the HIV-1 virus from attaching to the surface of T cells

The HIV-1 virus cripples the human immune system by targeting white blood cells called T cells that form the body's first line of defense in fighting infections.

17 Feb 2008

Bacterial toxin closes gate on immune response

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have demonstrated that a bacterial toxin from the common bacterium Staphylococcus aureus shuts down the control mechanism of the tunnel, called an ion channel, in immune cell membranes.

14 Feb 2008

Precise geometry and energy of protein structures holds key to cures

Your mother always told you to do your geometry homework, and for scientists seeking new treatments for diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, this advice turns out to be right on the mark.

5 Feb 2008

New understanding of ion channel regulation

A study at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago published this week in the online version of Biophysical Journal proposes that bubbles may control the opening and closing of ion channels.

4 Feb 2008

Celebrex may disrupt heart rhythm

Celebrex, a popular arthritis drug that blocks pain by inhibiting an enzyme known as COX-2, has been shown in laboratory studies to induce arrhythmia, or irregular beating of the heart, via a novel pathway unrelated to its COX-2 inhibition.

25 Jan 2008

New method to transfer DNA into a host cell

Genetically engineered products have become indispensable. For example, genetically modified bacteria produce human insulin.

21 Jan 2008

Researchers find cell protein that blocks HIV virus generation

UCLA researchers have found that a key protein in the body's dendritic cells can stop the virus that causes AIDS from "budding" part of the virus' life cycle that is crucial to its ability to replicate and infect other cells.

16 Jan 2008

Huntington's disease problem starts early

The damaging effects of the mutated protein involved in Huntington's disease take place earlier in cell life than previously believed, said researchers from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston in a report that appears in the current edition of the journal Neuron.

10 Jan 2008

Insights into cell movement likely to aid immune study, cancer research

Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have used yeast cells to better understand a collection of proteins associated with the formation of actin networks, which are essential to cell movement.

9 Jan 2008

Biochemist wins grant to develop cellular molecular probes capable of measuring cholesterol levels

Alejandro P. Heuck, a biochemist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, has received a four-year, $308,000 grant from the American Heart Association to develop molecular probes capable of measuring cholesterol levels in the membranes of individual cells.

7 Jan 2008

Research focuses on basic cellular mechanics that instigate the muscle contractions of labor

In the 21st century, human tissue can be generated from stem cells and severed limbs are successfully reattached, while the physiological processes governing life's most fundamental event, childbirth labor, remain a medical mystery.

4 Jan 2008

Key enzyme keeps synapse on track

At its core, healthy neurological function hinges on the efficient passage of information between brain cells via the synapse.

20 Dec 2007

How molecular muscles help cells divide

Time-lapse videos and computer simulations provide the first concrete molecular explanation of how a cell flexes tiny muscle-like structures to pinch itself into two daughter cells at the end of each cell division, according to a report in Science Express.

17 Dec 2007

Cholesterol affects your hearing

Levels of cholesterol in the membranes of hair cells in the inner ear can affect your hearing, said a consortium of researchers from Baylor College of Medicine, Rice University and Purdue University in a report in the print edition of The Journal of Biological Chemistry.

17 Dec 2007

Breakthrough technology provides new understanding of cellular processes endocytosis and exocytosis

For the first time, scientists at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City have observed in real time a cellular mechanism that's crucial to how brain cells communicate.

17 Dec 2007

First view of synapse in real time

For the first time, scientists at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City have observed in real time a cellular mechanism that's crucial to how brain cells communicate.

14 Dec 2007

Cell trafficking finding may aid drug development

With findings highlighted on a recent cover of Developmental Cell , researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City have shed important new light on key trafficking mechanisms within epithelial cells. Epithelial cells line the outside of nearly all organs.

12 Dec 2007

Protein-dependent "switch" regulates intracellular trafficking in epithelial cells

12 Dec 2007

Insulin regulates the secretion of the antiaging hormome Klotho

Dr. Carmela Abraham, a professor of biochemistry and medicine at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), reports this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences new findings on Klotho, an anti-aging gene that is associated with life span extension in rodents and humans.

27 Nov 2007