INSTITUTE OF CHEMICAL RESEARCH OF CATALONIA (ICIQ) IMAGE: SYNTHETIC CARRIER CALIX[4]PYRROLE CAVITAND CAN TRANSPORT AMINO ACIDS ACROSS LIPOSOME AND CELL MEMBRANES. The transport of amino acids and other molecules across the cell’s membrane plays a crucial role in the metabolism of cells and, therefore, in human health. Current research hints that cancer, cystic fibrosis, aminoacidurias and neurodegenerative diseases may...
UNIVERSITY OF FREIBURG IMAGE: INFORMATIONS OF PROTEINS: AN INTERRUPTION OF THIS COUPLING, THE ALLOSTERY, LEADS TO SIGNALS NOT BEING PASSED ON. Proteins transduce information and signals within the human body by changes in their structures. For example, hormones binding to their target proteins cause a structural change which in turn opens new binding sites for...
IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON Research News A growing area of medicine looks at how cellular binding observed in nature – where molecules like viruses or proteins bind to specific receptors on a cell – can be mimicked to aid drug delivery. Those developing targeted drug therapies aim to recreate this precise binding to develop Nano-sized drug...
MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL BOSTON – Elevated levels of a little-known lipoprotein in the blood that may put people at high risk of cardiovascular disease can be as accurately detected by genetic testing as by conventional laboratory measurement, researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have found. In a study published in JAMA Cardiology, the team reported that genetic risk...
UNIVERSITÉ CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN IMAGE: PATRICE CANI (UCLOUVAIN) AND CLAUDE KNAUF (INSERM) HAVE DISCOVERED A ‘JAMMER’ THAT BLOCKS COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE GUT AND THE BRAIN, THUS PREVENTING PROPER REGULATION OF SUGAR AND CAUSING INSULIN RESISTANCE. Since 2004, Claude Knauf (INSERM) and Patrice Cani (UCLouvain) have been collaborating on molecular and cellular mechanisms in order to...
PICOWER INSTITUTE AT MIT IMAGE: ASTROCYTES DERIVED FROM INDUCED PLURIPOTENT STEM CELLS WERE CENTRAL TO THE STUDY. In a new study, a team of scientists based at The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT and the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research reveals evidence showing that the most prominent Alzheimer’s disease risk gene may disrupt a...
Neuropsychiatric illnesses such as schizophrenia and autism are a complex interplay of brain chemicals, environment and genetics and require careful study to understand the root causes. Scientists have traditionally relied on samples taken from mice and nonhuman primates to study how these diseases develop, but the question has lingered: Are the brains of these subjects...
When the brain forms a memory of a new experience, neurons called engram cells to encode the details of the memory and are later reactivated whenever we recall it. A new MIT study reveals that this process is controlled by large-scale remodeling of cells’ chromatin. This remodeling, which allows specific genes involved in storing memories...
New research suggests that catalase, a naturally occurring enzyme in humans, plants, and animals, can suppress the replication of the new coronavirus in rhesus monkeys. The results also indicate that this low cost enzyme could dampen the inflammatory response that occurs in severe COVID-19. Above, a computer-generated illustration shows a cytokine storm, the excessive immune response that...
by La Jolla Institute for Immunology This scanning electron microscope image shows SARS-CoV-2 (round blue objects) emerging from the surface of cells cultured in the lab. As scientists around the world develop life-saving COVID-19 vaccines and therapies, many are still wondering exactly why the disease proves deadly in some people and mild in others. To solve...
