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.

Preventing muscle wasting with a leucine-rich diet

Muscle in adults is constantly being built and broken down. As young adults we keep the two processes in balance, but when we age breakdown starts to win. However, adding the amino acid leucine to the diet of old individuals can set things straight again.

5 Dec 2005

Ubiquitin ligase Rnf6 may be involved in oncogenesis

In a recent study, Dr. Ingolf Bach and colleagues from the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester and the University of Hamburg describe a novel role for the ubiquitin/proteosome protein degradation pathway in the regulation of local actin dynamics in neurons.

3 Oct 2005

Why do estrogen-dependent breast-cancer cells grow and spread rapidly?

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign say it may be because estrogen virtually eliminates levels of a vitally important regulatory protein.

10 Sep 2005

Biological breakthrough that could offer new hope in the fight against liver cancer

Professor John Mayer and Dr Simon Dawson, in collaboration with colleagues at Japan's Kyoto University, have discovered the function of a new liver oncoprotein - or cancer causing protein - which could be the first step to finding effective new treatments for the deadly illness.

21 Jul 2005

NIPA levels act as switch regulating cell division

Cells control mitosis (cell division) by assembling a biochemical switch to block it or by disassembling the switch to trigger it, according to investigators at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and the Technical University of Munich.

18 Jul 2005

Researchers find enzyme vital for controlling the early stages of cell death

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found an enzyme vital for controlling the early stages of cell death - a beneficial and normal process when it works right, but malignant in a variety of cancers when it malfunctions.

30 Jun 2005

Researchers explain how ubiquitin function is determined

University of Maryland researchers have explained, for the first time, why the linkage between the cell-regulating protein molecules called ubiquitins determines their function.

10 Jun 2005

Scientists have uncovered the structure of a network of proteins that help regulate the life cycle of cells

Scientists at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) have uncovered the structure of a network of proteins that help regulate the life cycle of cells. Understanding the network's physical layout is an important step toward learning its precise function, and in finding ways to correct flaws in the system that could lead to cancer.

2 Jun 2005

Discovery of new genes involved in the development of cancer

Dutch researcher Sebastian Nijman has discovered new genes which are involved in the development of cancer. The results of his research have led to a new treatment for patients with an inherited form of cancer, cylindromatosis.

15 May 2005

Process called sumoylation regulates key ion channel

Researchers at the University of Chicago have found that a recently discovered biological process known as sumoylation -- until now thought to be active only in the nucleus -- also occurs near the cell's surface where it regulates at least one and possibly many kinds of proteins, providing a novel target for the development of new drugs.

7 Apr 2005

Scientists identify novel regulator of telomere homeostasis

Each of our 46 chromosomes is capped by a telomere – a long stretch of repeated DNA (TTAGG). Telomeres play a key protective function in our cells, and now Dr. In Kwon Chung and colleagues at Yonsei University (Seoul, Korea) and the University of Central Florida reveal a novel mechanism to modulate telomere length.

3 Apr 2005

New insight into key mechanism by which cells limit cholesterol

The finding suggests a novel approach to the development of cholesterol-lowering drugs that may boost the effect of statins, one of the most prescribed cholesterol inhibitors, according to researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

15 Mar 2005

U.S. cancer researchers launch first American-Israeli cancer conference

Leading cancer researchers from Baltimore, Miami and New Jersey have organized the first Joint American-Israeli Conference on Cancer. The meeting, scheduled for March 16 through 18 in Jerusalem, seeks to foster collaboration among physicians and scientists in the two countries.

1 Mar 2005

Importance of Fbw7 as an emerging tumor suppressor

The DNA tumor virus simian virus 40 produces the Large T antigen which inactivates two of the cell's most important cancer-preventing proteins, p53 and pRb.

27 Feb 2005

Protein in cardiac muscle cells may play a crucial role in heart failure prevention

Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine have shown that a protein in cardiac muscle cells may play a crucial role in heart failure prevention.

5 Jan 2005

Ubiquitination protects against improper Notch signaling

The Notch pathway is an important molecular signaling mechanism whose existence has been known, or at least hinted at, for nearly a century since the identification of a mutant strain of Drosophila fruit flies with "notched" wings in Thomas Hunt Morgan's lab in 1910.

28 Dec 2004

Studies reveal complex molecular choreography with implications for human health and disease

As interactions of cellular proteins increasingly take center stage in basic biomedical research, studies are revealing a complex molecular choreography with implications for human health and disease.

10 Oct 2004

First use of technology called ubiquitin-mediated fluorescence complementation to study a cell-signaling mechanism called ubiquitination

Researchers at the University of Michigan Medical School and Howard Hughes Medical Institute have found a way to see proteins in cells that have been tagged by a molecular “sticky note” called ubiquitin.

8 Oct 2004

Protein points to anticancer drug targets

A unique tail at one end of a protein called Ubc12 stabilizes a molecular workshop that assembles the “on-switch cells” used to accelerate cell replication.

20 Sep 2004

New genetic hypothesis for the cause of autism

Researchers have proposed a new hypothesis on the cause of autism, suggesting a mixed epigenetic and genetic and mixed de novo and inherited (MEGDI) model.

8 Sep 2004