Cell Signaling News and Research

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Cell signaling is vital for cells to communicate and coordinate their activities, not just in the human body, but in all organisms. There are thousands of signaling pathways, ranging from protein homeostasis to carcinogenesis and biofilm formation.

Enzyme Mst3b is essential for regenerating damaged axons in live animal model, say researchers

Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston report that an enzyme known as Mst3b, previously identified in their lab, is essential for regenerating damaged axons (nerve fibers) in a live animal model, in both the peripheral and central nervous systems.

26 Oct 2009

Controlled formation of patchy particles may serve as drug-delivery vehicles to combat disease

Physicists, chemists and engineers at the University of Pennsylvania have demonstrated a novel method for the controlled formation of patchy particles, using charged, self-assembling molecules that may one day serve as drug-delivery vehicles to combat disease and perhaps be used in small batteries that store and release charge.

21 Oct 2009

Novel HIV drug to be studied in cell cultures and patients

A $6 million, five-year federal grant to The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute will enable researchers to investigate a novel approach in treating HIV infection---a unique class of drugs focused on developing therapies for psychological and neurological effects in AIDS.

19 Oct 2009

Findings provide new insight on skin pigmentation

The skin's pigment cells can be formed from completely different cells than has hitherto been thought, a new study from the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet shows. The results, which are published in the journal Cell, also mean the discovery of a new kind of stem cell.

19 Oct 2009

Decreased expression of tumor suppressor gene PTEN transforms neurofibromas into cancer

Researchers at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center showed for the first time that the loss or decreased expression of the tumor suppressor gene PTEN plays a central role in the malignant transformation of benign nerve tumors called neurofibromas into a malignant and extremely deadly form of sarcoma.

14 Oct 2009

aTyr Pharma to discuss aminoacyl tRNA synthetases at the BioPartnering Europe Conference

aTyr Pharma, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company discovering and developing a new class of naturally occurring proteins as biotherapeutics, will present at the BioPartnering Europe Conference in London on Monday October 12. Jeff Watkins, CEO of aTyr Pharma, will provide an overview of aTyr Pharma's technology, product engine, and lead program based on naturally occurring resected proteins of the tRNA synthetases.

7 Oct 2009

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital researcher receives the Millipore Guava Flow Cytometry Award

Millipore Corporation, a Life Science leader providing technologies, tools and services for bioscience research and biopharmaceutical manufacturing, today awarded Dr. Mari Hashitate Dallas of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., the Millipore Guava® Flow Cytometry Award.

6 Oct 2009

UK scientists discover new route by which leukaemia develops

CANCER RESEARCH UK SCIENTISTS have discovered a completely new route by which leukaemia develops, according to research published in Nature.

28 Sep 2009

Novel cleavage sites for enzyme caspase-3 identified

Investigators at Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham) have identified novel cleavage sites for the enzyme caspase-3 (an enzyme that proteolytically cleaves target proteins). Using an advanced proteomic technique called N-terminomics, Guy Salvesen, Ph.D., professor and director of the Apoptosis and Cell Death Research program of Burnham's NCI-designated Cancer Center, and colleagues determined the cleavage sites on target proteins and found, contrary to previous understanding, that caspase-3 targets α-helices as well as unstructured loops.

22 Sep 2009

G proteins could help fight cardiovascular, neurodegenerative disorders, and cancer

New data on signalling proteins, called G proteins, may prove important in fighting diseases such as cardiovascular, neurodegenerative disorders, and cancer. For many decades scientists have puzzled on "How signalling proteins transport and organize in specific areas of the cell?" Researchers from Nano-Science Center and Department of Neuroscience and Pharmacology at the University of Copenhagen provide yet unrecognized clues to solve this mystery.

21 Sep 2009

Swedish researcher to receive Fernström Foundation's Nordic Prize

Internationally renowned Swedish researcher Professor Jan-Åke Gustafsson, from KI and the University of Houston, is this year's recipient of the Fernström Foundation's Nordic Prize. The prize, which is worth SEK 1 million, is one of Scandinavia's most prestigious medical prizes.

21 Sep 2009

Oil-and-water-based nanoemulsion could be more effective for treating burns

Treating second-degree burns with a nanoemulsion lotion sharply curbs bacterial growth and reduces inflammation that otherwise can jeopardize recovery, University of Michigan scientists have shown in initial laboratory studies.

15 Sep 2009

aTyr Pharma expands intellectual property portfolio, receives its fifteenth patent

aTyr Pharma announced today that the US Patent office has issued patent US 7,572,452 B2, titled "Method for Stimulating Wound Healing." aTyr Pharma is the sole assignee of this patent, and Professor Sunghoon Kim, a scientific co-founder of aTyr Pharma, is the inventor.

9 Sep 2009

TRAF6 protein plays a role in cell growth and carcinogenesis, says researchers

The mainstay immune system protein TRAF6 plays an unexpected, key role activating a cell signaling molecule that in mutant form is associated with cancer growth, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report in the Aug. 28 edition of Science.

2 Sep 2009

TRAF6 protein can activate a cell signalling molecule associated with cancer

28 Aug 2009

Tiny filaments extending from cells may play a role in common malignant brain tumors

UCSF scientists have discovered that a tiny filament extending from cells, until recently regarded as a remnant of evolution, may play a role in the most common malignant brain tumor in children.

24 Aug 2009

Scientists to discuss effective treatments for serious diseases at Functional Genomics/Chemical Biology conference

A cure for cystic fibrosis, HIV-fighting 'Trojan horses', new pharmaceuticals from the ocean. Chemical biologists use new and innovative approaches to discover medications of the future. On 24 August, some of the field's most prominent researchers will attend an international conference in Gothenburg, Sweden.

24 Aug 2009

$3.2M grant to explore how chemicals affect human health

Most people would agree that arsenic, lead, mercury, benzene and carbon monoxide pose dangers to humans. Not many, though, realize that the average person is exposed to about 10,000 different chemicals per day.

12 Aug 2009

Bellicum Pharmaceuticals starts phase I/II trial of novel advanced prostate cancer vaccine

Bellicum Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced dosing of the first patient in a Phase I/II clinical trial of BP-GMAX-CD1, a novel pharmacologically regulated dendritic cell vaccine for the treatment of prostate cancer. The disease-specific trial is being conducted under a Bellicum Investigational New Drug application allowed by the FDA in 2008. The company anticipates reporting initial results of the study in 2010.

6 Aug 2009

Discovery of genetic link to age-related cataracts

Bing-Cheng Wang, Ph.D., Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine professor of pharmacology and senior staff scientist at MetroHealth Medical Center, and Sudha K. Iyengar, Ph.D. professor of genetic and molecular epidemiology at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, have discovered the first gene associated with the formation of age-related cataracts, a leading causes of blindness.

31 Jul 2009