News tagged with calcium channel

Cell's power generator depends on long-sought protein: 50-year search for calcium channel ends

(PhysOrg.com) -- Mitochondria, those battery-pack organelles that fuel the energy of almost every living cell, have an insatiable appetite for calcium. Whether in a dish or a living organism, the mitochondria ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Jun 19, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (10) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Protein structures give disease clues

Using some of the most powerful nuclear magnetic resonance equipment available, researchers at the University of California, Davis, are making discoveries about the shape and structure of biological molecules ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Feb 01, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Gene discovery explains how fruit flies retreat from heat

A discovery in fruit flies may be able to tell us more about how animals, including humans, sense potentially dangerous discomforts.

Biology / Biotechnology

created Dec 15, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Neuroscientists learn how channels fine-tune neuronal excitability

Scientists in the Hotchkiss Brain Institute at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, have discovered a new mechanism that nerve cells (neurons) use to fine-tune their electrical output. The exciting discovery, published ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Jan 26, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Fruit flies lead scientists to new human pain gene

While it has become clear in recent years that susceptibility to pain has a strong inherited component, very little is known about actual "pain genes" and how they work. In the November 12th issue of Cell, researchers at Chi ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Nov 11, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Protein provides link between calcium signaling in excitable and non-excitable cells

A calcium-sensing protein, STIM1, known to activate store-operated calcium channels has been found to also inhibit voltage-operated calcium channels, according to researchers at Temple University.

Medicine & Health / Medical research

created Oct 01, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Epileptic seizures may be linked to an ancient gene family

New research points to a genetic route to understanding and treating epilepsy. Timothy Jegla, an assistant professor of biology at Penn State University, has identified an ancient gene family that plays a ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Aug 01, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Calcium connections: Basic pathway for maintaining cell's fuel stores

University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine researchers have described a previously unknown biological mechanism in cells that prevents them from cannibalizing themselves for fuel. The mechanism involves ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Jul 27, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Opening the gate to the cell's recycling center

(PhysOrg.com) -- In cells, as in cities, disposing of garbage and recycling anything that can be reused is an essential service. In both city and cell, health problems can arise when the process breaks down.

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Jul 14, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Blinking neurons give thoughts away

(PhysOrg.com) -- Electrical currents are invisible to the naked eye - at least they are when they flow through metal cables. In nerve cells, however, scientists are able to make electrical signals visible. ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created May 04, 2010 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (7) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Cellular channel may open doors to skin conditions, hair growth

Skin and hair follicles are constantly renewed in the body, maintained by specialized stem cells. New research from Children's Hospital Boston identifies a small cellular channel that regulates skin and hair growth and that ...

Medicine & Health / Medical research

created Apr 15, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Understanding night blindness and calcium

Congenital stationary night blindness, an inherited condition that affects one's ability to see in the dark, is caused by a mutation in a calcium channel protein that shuttles calcium into and out of cells. Now, researchers ...

Medicine & Health / Medical research

created Apr 01, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Neuroscientists reveal new links that regulate brain electrical activity

Investigators in the Hotchkiss Brain Institute, Faculty of Medicine, have made a major breakthrough in our understanding of nerve impulse generation within the brain. Brain cells communicate with each other by firing electrical ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Feb 16, 2010 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (5) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

A role for calcium in taste perception

Calcium may not come to mind when you think of tasty foods, but in a study appearing in the January 8 issue of JBC, Japanese researchers have provided the first demonstration that calcium channels on the tongue ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Jan 08, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

A new understanding of why seizures occur with alcohol withdrawal

Epileptic seizures are the most dramatic and prominent aspect of the "alcohol withdrawal syndrome" that occurs when a person abruptly stops a long-term or chronic drinking habit. Researchers have shown that the flow of calcium ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Oct 17, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 0