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Tag: "channels" at biology news

Johns Hopkins lab scientists tame overactive CF protein

...hibiting VCP would spare the chloride-transporting channels from premature demise, the team showed that when the VCP's level was lowered, it no longer destroyed CFTR. In a second set of tests, researchers blocked the destruction of CFTR with a proteasome-inhibiting drug currently used to treat multiple myelo...

Bone marrow cells can become functional gut lining cells

...l 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 channel. After bone marrow transplantation from donor mi...

Secrets of the sea yield stronger artificial bone

...are expelled from the forming ice and entrapped in channels between the ice crystals. The result is a layered structure that roughly resembles nacre's wafer-like construction. The Berkeley Lab team believed this same freezing process could be used to cast an exquisitely layered material that comes close to m...

Convergent evolution of molecules in electric fish

...n. Looking at the convergent evolution of sodium channels in these fish helps neurobiologists identify important parts of these proteins relevant to human health, adds Zakon. "When natural selection is acting to cause changes in a part of a molecule, you know it's functionally important," he says. "Natural...

Stable polymer nanotubes may have a biotech future

...T nanotubes may have biotechnology applications as channels for tiny volumes of chemicals in nanofluidic reactor devices, for example, or as the "world's smallest hypodermic needles" for injecting molecules one at a time. Carbon nanotubes are of keen interest in nanotechnology research, especially for making...

Molecular force field helps cancer cells defend against attack

..., or VEGFR-3. The protein is tied to the growth of channels in the lymph system that serve as cellular superhighways for cancer spread and is found in breast, colon and thyroid tumors. Cance and colleagues were the first to pull FAK out of human tumors and to show that human cancers make the molecule in larg...

Gene variation increases SIDS risk in African Americans

...ade no difference. Cells with the normal or Y1103 channels "were found to function indistinguishably," the au...re acidic environment, the cells with the abnormal channels began to misbehave. In normal cells, these sodium channels are closed at rest. In response to el...

How sperm crack the whip

...atSper1 block fertilization in mice. And since the channels in human sperm are very similar, there's no reason to believe you couldn't develop a male or female birth control pill that would block the protein before it functions to hyperactivate sperm, preventing fertilization," he said. ...

Novel method reveals how menthol discovery could point towards new or improved pain therapies

...hat the misregulation of temperature-activated ion channels can result in chronic pain syndromes," said Ardem ...directed the research. "In fact, some of these ion channels are considered targets to treat chronic inflammatory and neuropathic pain indications. Understandin...

Unraveling the mysteries of poison

...tein synthesis procedures to uncover how potassium channels and toxins combine and change in structure. This w...anes, and "ion channels" are embedded in them. Ion channels are special proteins which let only certain ions through the membrane. The channels build an electro...

High-resolution light microscope reveals the fundamental mechanisms of nerve communication

...ilot establishes the proximity between the calcium channels and the vesicles enabling the efficient release of neurotransmitters. These studies demonstrate for the first time that resolution below a half-wavelength of visible light is no longer reserved for the electron microscope when observing cells. As de...

New gene reduces retinal degeneration in fruit flies

... activity of a protein called the TRP channel. TRP channels are found in fruit fly neurons responsible for sen... than normal neurons. Because Lazaro helps fly TRP channels work at their maximum, it is possible that a Lazaro-like gene in mammals might also play a role in h...

Protein 'nanosprings' most resilient found in nature

...duction. Ankyrin proteins also coordinate the ion channels and transporters that control the beating of the heart. In 2004, Bennett's team linked mutations in the gene ankyrin-B to an inherited cardiac arrhythmia syndrome that can lead to sudden death ( http://www.dukemednews.org/news/article.php?id=9389 ). ...

Why nerve cells work faster than the theory allows

...to a certain threshold value. Voltage gated sodium channels react to this voltage change by opening up and tri...sitively charged sodium ions flow through the open channels into the cell, which leads to a further increase of the membrane potential and the opening of additi...

Researchers solve mystery of how nuclear pores duplicate before cell division

...long wondered how nuclear pores ?the all-important channels that control the flow of information in and out of... ribosomes," he explained. To form the transport channels that span the nuclear membrane, 30 different proteins, called nucleoporins, come together in an orde...

Nano machine switches between biological and silicon worlds

...ses a microfluidics chip that includes a number of channels measured in nano-metres. The novelty of microfluidics is that it can channel liquids in laminar, or predictable, flow. The floor of this channel is peppered with Hall-Effect sensors. The Hall Effect describes how a magnetic field influences an elect...

Mechanism for memory revealed in neurons of electric fish

...by turning on special cell membrane channels. The channels give the fish neurons the ability to retain a memo...utation that neurons do," says Zakon. "We have ion channels [in the neurons] and we know those are activated. The mystery is how a short stimulus leads to such ...

Researchers get neurons and silicon talking

...owever. "They also provided the link between ionic channels of the neurons and semiconductor material in a way that neural electrical signals could be passed to the silicon chip," says Vassanelli. Once there, that signal can be recorded using the chip's transistors. What's more, the neurons can also be stimu...

Master genetic switch found for chronic pain

...nerve cells was impaired. The animals had lost ion channels known to be involved in reacting to painful heat o...ranscriptional control program for many of the ion channels and receptors known to transduce noxious stimuli has intriguing implications for the design of more ...

UC Berkeley researchers create a biologically-inspired artificial compound eye

...self-written waveguides, that is, light-conducting channels that themselves have been created by beams of ligh...ht beams etch holes in the resin creating the tiny channels called self-written waveguides. Because these channels are formed at the angle of the light beams t...

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