Transmembrane in Biological News

Penn researchers demonstrate a new model for drug discovery with a fluorescent anesthetic

... have shown to bind clinical anesthetics. Researchers noticed a resemblance in the crystal structure of the apoferritin protein to that of the transmembrane region of the superfamily of ligand-gated channels that includes the GABA receptor. Anesthetics are known to positively modulate GABA signaling. ...

Gene decides whether coral relative will fuse or fight

... and their interdisciplinary colleagues have identified a key invertebrate allorecognition gene. The gene they identified appears to encode a transmembrane receptor expressed in all tissues capable of allorecognition. It also includes a hypervariable domain and exists in many different varieties that ...

Protein folding researcher David Baker to receive Sackler Prize in Biophysics

... new ways of studying proteins in membranes -- the thin fatty covering that separates the inside of the cell from the external environment. These transmembrane proteins include molecular channels that permit the flow of calcium into and out of the cell, and that are responsible for the passage of neural ...

Forsyth scientists trigger cancer-like response from embryonic stem cells

... stem cell sub-population. These data reveal that key properties of embryonic stem cells can be controlled through bioelectrical signals, identify transmembrane voltage potential as a novel regulator of neural crest function in embryonic development, and demonstrate that potassium flows can be an important ...

8 National Medals of Science awardees to be honored at gala, then the White House

... and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from MIT. Robert Lefkowitz - Duke University For his discovery of the seven transmembrane receptors, deemed the largest, most versatile, and most therapeutically accessible receptor signaling system, and for describing the general ...

Biophysical Society names 2009 award recipients

... Robert Stroud of the University of California, San Francisco, will receive the Anatrace Membrane Protein Award for his outstanding contributions to transmembrane biology, and pioneering new methods allowing membrane proteins to become tractable as structural methods. Stephen H. White of the University of ...

PTC124 shows activity in cystic fibrosis; Phase 2 proof-of-concept data published in Lancet

... University Hospital in Jerusalem, Israel and sponsored by PTC Therapeutics (PTC). Patients with CF lack adequate levels of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) protein, a chloride channel which is required for normal function of the lung, pancreas, liver, and other organs. ...

A genetic cause for iron deficiency

... families with more than one chronically iron-deficient member. They found a variety of mutations in a gene called TMPRSS6 (the acronym stands for transmembrane serine protease S6) in all of these families, as well as several patients without a family history of the disorder. Although IRIDA is quite rare, ...

Computer simulations point to key molecular basis of cystic fibrosis

... corrective treatments. Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a fatal disease caused by a defective gene that produces a misshapen form of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) protein. People with cystic fibrosis do not have enough CFTR for their cells to work normally because their bodies ...

Genome of marine organism tells of humans' unicellular ancestors

... these proteins for gluing cells into a larger, many-celled creature. "The transition to multicellularity likely rested upon the co-option of diverse transmembrane and secreted proteins to new functions in intercellular signaling and adhesion," they wrote in Science. "Choanoflagellates really are a unique ...

Study uncovers clues to cystic fibrosis gene dysfunction and gastrointestinal disease

... New York, offers new insight into the role that the cystic fibrosis gene plays in the development of gastrointestinal disease. The cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene codes for a protein also known as CFTR. Mutations of this protein are associated with cystic fibrosis (CF) and a ...

Galapagos and Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Therapeutics announce drug discovery collaboration

... sources that improve the function of a defective protein found in people who have cystic fibrosis. The protein is called CFTR - cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator. To advance the search for a cure for cystic fibrosis, CFFT funds promising scientific research in the pharmaceutical and ...

New insight into the mechanisms of voltage sensing and transduction in biological processes

... The voltage sensor of voltage-gated ion channels is a conserved protein domain that senses millivolt changes in transmembrane potential, to regulate ion permeation through the channel. A recently discovered protein, Ci-VSP, has a voltage sensor that is coupled not to an ion ...

Dominant cholesterol-metabolism ideas challenged by new research

... The Penn State-Amherst team performed a complex series of experiments to determine whether the ABCA1 enzyme is either actively involved in the transmembrane transport of phospholipids or regulates another enzyme that transports the phospholipids. They also examined the role of ABCA1 enzyme in apoptosis ...

Study in Science holds promise for a new approach to drug therapy

... toxins, hormones, etc. The workhorses of this signaling process are transmembrane receptors like GPCRs. These proteins weave into and out of a human cells' ... Many current, best-selling drugs work by binding to G-protein-coupled transmembrane receptors in the place of ligands on the outside of cells. A successful ...

Drug resistant avian influenza viruses more common in Southeast Asia than North America

... of one of five amino acids in the part of the M2 protein called the transmembrane domain-the part of M2 located within the coat of the influenza virus. The ... and thus stops viral replication. "By analyzing the sequence of the transmembrane part of the M2 gene we were able to determine how frequently amantadine ...

pHLIP, a novel technology to locate and treat tumors

... inserted across the membrane as an alpha-helix. Under normal tissue conditions of neutral pH, the water-soluble form is favored. At acidic pH, the transmembrane alpha-helix predominates. An earlier paper from the same groups shows that at low pH, pHLIP can move cell-impermeable molecules across a cell ...

Technology reveals 'lock and key' proteins behind diseases

... cassette (ABC) transporters ?proteins that, when impaired, can cause disease. One of the best known ABC transporters is the Cystic Fibrosis transmembrane Conductance Regulator (CFTR), which, when disabled by mutation, causes cystic fibrosis, a hereditary disease that results in progressive disability ...

Penn study on lung-infecting bacterial enzyme suggests new approach to cystic fibrosis treatment

... of Physiology, shows that the bacterial enzyme, called sphingomyelinase (SMase), disables a protein in lungs called CFTR, for cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator. SMase is made by the bacteria that cause pneumonia, some anthrax-causing bacteria, and bacteria that cause opportunistic ...

Discovery of an HIV inhibitor in human blood points to new drug class

... anti-HIV activity, excluding the possibility that some other factor was responsible. VIRIP specifically targets a conserved region in the HIV-1 transmembrane glycoprotein known as "gp41 fusion peptide." This peptide, which is normally buried in the viral envelope, becomes exposed during the process of ...

With record resolution and sensitivity, tool images how life organizes in a cell membrane

... the outside of the cell to the inside. Others don't cross the membrane at all-they are anchored to the membrane by lipid-like entities or by single transmembrane helices. The membrane is a fluid and components can move around laterally to differing degrees, like swimmers in a pool. The NanoSIMS 50 lets ...

Study reveals how cells destroy faulty proteins in cystic fibrosis

... the disease. Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a fatal disease caused by a defective gene that produces a misshapen form of the protein cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR). People with cystic fibrosis do not have enough CFTR for their cells to work normally because their bodies quickly ...

Johns Hopkins lab scientists tame overactive CF protein

... them to the cell's waste-disposal complex, called the proteasome. In people with CF, defects in genes for a protein called CFTR (cystic fibrosis transmembrane regulator) interrupt the transport chemistry. Until now, researchers had not identified the precise search-and-destroy proteins that ERAD deploys to ...

Bone marrow cells can become functional gut lining cells

... "We demonstrated that the cells were functional by showing that they express functional chloride channels (known as CFTR, or cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator) which are necessary for fluid balance in the gut," Krause said. The researchers used mice that do not have this chloride ...

Scientists discover basic defect in cystic fibrosis airway glands

... pancreas, preventing digestive enzymes from reaching the small intestine. The disorder results from mutations in the gene for the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR), a membrane channel regulator essential for proper salt and water movement across some epithelia. Currently, there are ...

'Nano-keys' bind cell receptors and trigger allergic reactions

... an allergic reaction. Typically, two or more receptors cluster together when they bind with an antigen (allergen or foreign body), and this causes transmembrane activation of enzymes within the cell that eventually lead to the release of histamines. Such processes begin on the nanoscale (a nanometer equals ...