Neurons are brain cells that communicate with each other by sending electrochemical signals along axons. When a neuron is about to release a signal in the form of an electric charge, it allows ions to pass through its membrane ...
Optics & Photonics
Dec 11, 2018
0
239
(Phys.org) -- An international team of scientists, including chemist Xiao Cheng Zeng of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, has created what is in effect a nanoscale sieve that is very selective in what it will allow to pass ...
Bio & Medicine
Jul 18, 2012
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0
Near the entrance to Michael Levin's lab at Tufts, four deer antlers are mounted on wooden boxes. They represent an incredible feat of regeneration in mammals: Deer shed their antlers annually and regrow the bone, blood vessels, ...
Cell & Microbiology
Mar 25, 2024
0
13
Excitation of neurons depends on the selected influx of certain ions, namely sodium, calcium and potassium through specific channels. Obviously, these channels were crucial for the evolution of nervous systems in animals. ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jul 26, 2012
1
0
Every cell of our body is separated from its environment by a lipid bilayer. In order to maintain their biological function and to transduce signals, special proteins, so called ion channels, are embedded in the membrane. ...
Cell & Microbiology
May 3, 2013
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0
The mosquito, sworn enemy of exposed ankles and elbows, locates each bloody meal using a finely tuned sense of smell. Yet, not all insects can sniff out vulnerable flesh. Butterflies, for example, feed not on necks but on ...
Plants & Animals
Aug 15, 2018
0
92
Deep in the night in muddy African rivers, a fish uses electrical charges to sense the world around it and communicate with other members of its species. Signaling in electrical spurts that last only a few tenths of a thousandth ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 21, 2018
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95
Scientists have discovered how drug-like small molecules can regulate the activity of therapeutically relevant ion channels—and their findings could transform ongoing drug development efforts.
Molecular & Computational biology
Nov 23, 2020
0
127
Using cryo-electron microscopy and mass spectrometry, researchers from PSI have deciphered the structure of an ion channel found in the eye while it interacts with the protein calmodulin—a structure that has eluded scientists ...
Cell & Microbiology
Apr 3, 2023
0
117
The Nobel Prize winner Roderick MacKinnon suggested that ion channels were like rigid tubes through which molecules of varying size move. Now it seems that he was wrong: a team of scientists from SISSA Trieste and the Elettra ...
Biochemistry
Jun 22, 2015
1
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