A team of researchers at the University of Alberta has uncovered a long-sought link in the battle to control cholesterol and heart disease. The protein that interferes with low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptors that clear “bad” cholesterol from the blood was identified in findings recently published in Nature Communications by Dawei Zhang, associate professor of pediatrics in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry. Excess...
by UT Southwestern Medical Center New spinal neurons converted from glia. Credit: UT Southwestern Medical Center Using genetic engineering, researchers at UT Southwestern and Indiana University have reprogrammed scar-forming cells in mouse spinal cords to create new nerve cells, spurring recovery after spinal cord injury. The findings, published online today in Cell Stem Cell, could offer hope for the...
by The Scripps Research Institute Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Scientists at Scripps Research have clarified the workings of a mysterious protein called Gαo, which is one of the most abundant proteins in the brain and, when mutated, causes severe movement disorders. The findings, which appear in Cell Reports, are an advance in the basic understanding of how the brain controls muscles...
by Marissa Shapiro, Vanderbilt University Conducted experiment shows six tumor sizes grow for 15 days, at which point the MYC–HCF1 interaction is broken. After day 15, the tumors shrink and are gone. Cancer cells are dead by four days. Credit: William Tansey For the second time, cancer researchers at Vanderbilt have discovered a protein that—when genetically manipulated to...
UT SOUTHWESTERN MEDICAL CENTER IMAGE: Abnormal deposits of the protein amyloid beta in the brain have been linked to Alzheimer’s disease. The above illustration reveals a potential way discovered by UTSW researchers to stop this process, leveraging the protective nature of the protein transthyretin (TTR) to identify a segment of this protein, TTR-S, that halts...
Amber Tong Senior Editor Sue Dillon remembers the uncertainty when she first left J&J to start her own biotech around a new kind of molecules called centyrins. Sue Dillon J&J had already licensed the tech, which was developed by her co-founder Karyn O’Neil at the pharma giant’s Centyrex unit, to two companies for use in CAR-T and...
Axin is a VIP – a Very Important Protein. It’s essential to the development of an embryo. It’s a key player in allowing the body’s cells to divide without going haywire and forming a tumour. It regulates the body’s production of lipids, or fats, which can affect aging. Image credit: Pixabay (Free Pixabay license) Essentially,...
KYOTO UNIVERSITY IMAGE: ABNORMALITIES IN THE CHOLESTEROL TRANSPORT PROTEIN ABCA13 HAVE BEEN SHOWN TO LEAD TO SCHIZOPHRENIA IN A MOUSE MODEL. CREDIT: MINDY TAKAMIYA/KYOTO UNIVERSITY ICEMS Scientists have suspected mutations in a cellular cholesterol transport protein are associated with psychiatric disorders, but have found it difficult to prove this and to pinpoint how it happens....
by Jim Fessenden, University of Massachusetts Medical School Stained tissue showing changes in blood vessels in fat tissue between nonpregnant and pregnant women. Credit: R. Rojas-Rodriguez et al., Science Translational Medicine (2020) Laboratory research and analysis of epidemiological data by Silvia Corvera, MD, and Tiffany Moore Simas, MD, MPH, MEd, and colleagues show that low levels...
by Örebro Universitet Atherosclerosis is a condition affecting the cardiovascular system. If atherosclerosis occurs in the coronary arteries (which supply the heart) the result may be angina pectoris, or in worse cases a heart attack. Credit: Wikipedia/CC BY 3.0 The protein CARD8 regulates several inflammatory proteins in people with atherosclerosis. This is shown in a...
