by Michaela Kane, Duke University Podocyte Models. Credit: Duke University Biomedical engineers at Duke University have developed a method to study how key cells in the kidneys become injured and deformed. The new model has revealed a significant mechanism behind severe kidney disease and pointed toward early disease biomarkers and potential therapeutic interventions. The study...
by The Francis Crick Institute Genes from a reduced published signature of TB risk are increasingly differentially expressed in incipient, subclinical, and clinical TB patients. (A) List of published TB 16-gene risk signature from Zak et al. (2016) where *** indicates the presence of a 30-gene signature from Leicester incipient, subclinical TB, and clinical TB from...
by The Wistar Institute A hairpin loop from a pre-mRNA. Highlighted are the nucleobases (green) and the ribose-phosphate backbone (blue). Note that this is a single strand of RNA that folds back upon itself. Credit: Vossman/ Wikipedia Alternative polyadenylation (APA) is an RNA processing mechanism that regulates gene expression by generating different ends on RNA transcripts...
by Ingrid Fadelli, Medical Xpress Credit: Boulting et al. The expression of genes in response to neuronal activity can significantly influence the human brain’s development over time. While many neuroscientists have investigated the epigenetic effects of neuronal activity, most of their studies were conducted on mice, thus the understanding of these processes in humans is...
Vanderbilt biochemist Yi Ren is part of a team that has identified a new behaviour of a SARS-CoV-2 protein and discovered that interfering with its function can block virus replication in host cells. This opens up the potential for new therapeutic targets for COVID-19. The article, “Nsp1 Protein of SARS-CoV-2 Disrupts the mRNA Export Machinery to Inhibit...
by La Jolla Institute for Immunology Enhancers serve as specific switches that turn on genes in a cell specific manner but it has been difficult to determine which switch is connected to which gene. Credit: Alex Fung The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted how our small genetic differences can have a tremendous effect on how our bodies...
JEFF FALK-RICE UNIVERSITYRICE UNIVERSITY A new, versatile gene signal amplifier can do a better job of detecting the expression of target genes than current methods, researchers report. Ultimately, the researchers hope the two-module system will simplify the diagnosis of diseases like Alzheimer’s, diabetes, and some cancers characterized by distinctive patterns of protein expression. They say...
NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Some innate immune system genes have evolved rapidly and vary widely in their expression across species and individual cells, while others are more conserved and consistent, according to a new study. The innate immune response kicks into gear upon infection to both inhibit pathogen replication and raise the alarm. This response...
About 1.5 billion years ago, tiny visitors came to live inside the cells that later evolved into all plant and animal life—including humans. Those visitors were mitochondria, small organelles whose prominent role is producing 90 percent of the chemical energy cells need to survive. Evolutionarily speaking, humans, animals and plants are thus a combination of...
UNC School of Medicine researchers, led by Brian Strahl, PhD, found surprising role for a protein called Spt6, which is crucial to the maintenance of proper messenger RNA levels in cells, a discovery that opens new research avenues and suggests a target UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA HEALTH CARE CHAPEL HILL, NC – When cells grow and divide to...
