News tagged with channel protein

Unusual protein helps regulate key cell communication pathway

Charged atoms, or ions, move through tiny pores, or channels, embedded in cell membranes, generating the electrical signals that allow cells to communicate with one another. In new research, scientists have ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Apr 23, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Molding the business end of neurotoxins

For snakes, spiders, and other venomous creatures, the "business end," or active part, of a toxin is the area on the surface of a protein that is most likely to undergo rapid evolution in response to environmental constraints, ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Feb 23, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

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

Study shows Alzheimer's disease-related peptides form toxic calcium channels in the plasma membrane

Alzheimer's disease is triggered by the inappropriate processing of amyloid precursor protein to generate excess amounts of short peptide fragments called A-beta. For many years, the neurodegeneration associated with Alzheimer's ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Oct 24, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

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

Researchers find new 'molecular motors' that bacteria use to transport proteins

(PhysOrg.com) -- Joshua Shaevitz, an assistant professor from the Department of Physics and the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics at Princeton University, along with Mingzhai Sun, a postdoctoral associate at ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Jun 13, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Small change makes a big difference for ion channels

Using a high-resolution single-molecule study technique, University of Illinois researchers have seen the very subtle differences between two branches of an important family of neurotransmitter-gated ion channels.

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Jun 02, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Researchers get a first look at the mechanics of membrane proteins

In two new studies, researchers provide the first detailed view of the elaborate chemical and mechanical interactions that allow the ribosome – the cell's protein-building machinery – to insert a ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Apr 17, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Potassium channel gene modifies risk for epilepsy

Vanderbilt University researchers have identified a new gene that can influence a person's risk for developing epilepsy. The findings, reported in the March 29 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could improv ...

Medicine & Health / Genetics

created Apr 04, 2011 | popularity 3 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Scientists crack molecular code regulating neuronal excitability

A key question in protein biochemistry is how proteins recognize "correct" interaction partners in a sea of cellular factors. Nowhere is that more critical to know than in the brain, where interactions governing ...

Medicine & Health / Medical research

created Mar 22, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

New genetic deafness syndrome identified

Ten years ago, scientists seeking to understand how a certain type of feature on a cell called an L-type calcium channel worked created a knockout mouse missing both copies of the CACNA1D gene.

Medicine & Health / Genetics

created Mar 09, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Unearthing a pathway to brain damage

Neuroscientists have long suspected that abnormal calcium signaling and accumulation of misfolded proteins cause an intracellular membrane-bound organelle called the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) to trigger the ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Feb 25, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Process leading to protein diversity in cells important for proper neuron firing

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have documented a novel form of splicing in the cytoplasm of a nerve cell, which dictates a special form of a potassium channel ...

Medicine & Health / Medical research

created Nov 17, 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

Back to the future for flu fighters

(PhysOrg.com) -- Australian National University researchers have breathed new life into an old protein drug target in a discovery that could open the door to a new range of drugs to combat influenza.

Medicine & Health / Medical research

created Jul 20, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 1 | with audio podcast