Daily non-political popular news in brief.
Researchers find 'zip code' spurs cargo transport in neurons
10-24-2006 · EurekAlert!Getting molecular cargo from the cell body to the synapse of nerve cells is crucial for learning and memory, even for survival of the cell itself. New research conducted at Brown University and the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass., shows that a single peptide can load and direct this biological material. This peptide "ZIP Code" comes from amyloid precursor protein, the principal player in the development of Alzheimer's disease.
Read more »
Keywords: researchers, zip, code, spurs, cargo, transport, neurons, researcher, spur, neuron
« Previous | Next »
Similar news on "Researchers find 'zip code' spurs cargo transport in neurons":
- Neuron cell stickiness may hold key to evolution of the human brain
11-02-2006 · EurekAlert!
The stickiness of human neurons may have been a key factor in why the human brain evolved beyond the brains of our primate relatives. In a study comparing the genomes of humans, chimpanzees and other vertebrates, researchers at the US Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and Joint Genome Institute (JGI) found a strikingly high degree of genetic differences in DNA sequences that appear to regulate genes involved in nerve cell adhesion molecules.
Similar news · Read more »
- U-M scientists find new causes for neurodegeneration
10-24-2007 · EurekAlert!
Diseases that cause neurons to break down, such as Alzheimer's, continue to be elusive to scientists and resistant to treatments. A new finding from University of Michigan researchers demonstrates an unpredicted link between a virtually unknown signaling molecule and neuron health. In a study released in PNAS this week, Lois Weisman connects the loss of this molecule to massive neurodegeneration in the brain, which plays a key role in the survival of nervous system cells.
Similar news · Read more »
- Diseased brain cells more involved in ALS-associated motor neuron death
04-15-2007 · EurekAlert!
Two papers by Columbia and Harvard researchers report for the first time that astrocytes -- the most abundant non-neuronal cells in the central nervous system, which carry a mutated gene known to cause some cases of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS/Lou Gehrig's disease) -- induce motor neuron death. This indicates that astrocytes may contribute to ALS by releasing a toxic factor that damages neurons.
Similar news · Read more »
- Adult brain cells are movers and shakers
11-08-2007 · EurekAlert!
It's a general belief that the circuitry of young brains has robust flexibility but eventually gets "hard-wired" in adulthood. As Johns Hopkins researchers and their colleagues report in the Nov. 8 issue of Neuron, however, adult neurons aren't quite as rigidly glued in place as we suspect.
Similar news · Read more »
- Doing nature one better: Expanding the genetic code in living mammalian cells
07-01-2007 · EurekAlert!
Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have developed a novel strategy to expand the natural repertoire of 20 amino acids in mammalian cells, including neurons, and successfully inserted tailor-made amino acids into proteins in these cells. In a powerful demonstration of the method's versatility, they then used unnatural amino acids to determine the operating mechanism of the "molecular gates" that regulate the movement of potassium ions in and out of nerve cells.
Similar news · Read more »
- Rutgers scientists discover brain cell development process implicated in mental retardation
07-31-2007 · EurekAlert!
Scientists at Rutgers University have discovered a biological process in brain cell development that may help explain some causes of mental retardation. This understanding may one day help other researchers develop therapies that can reduce specific forms of retardation. Proteins of the Rho family, when excessively present in developing brain cells known as neurons, inhibit another protein, called cypin, that promotes healthy neuron development.
Similar news · Read more »
- Deconstructing brain wiring, one neuron at a time
02-28-2007 · EurekAlert!
Researchers have long said they won't be able to understand the brain until they can put together a "wiring diagram" -- a map of how billions of neurons are interconnected. Now, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have jumped what many believe to be a major hurdle to preparing that chart: Identifying all of the connections to a single neuron.
Similar news · Read more »
- Alzheimer's molecule is a smart speed bump on the nerve-cell transport highway
01-17-2008 · EurekAlert!
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine discovered that proteins carrying chemical cargo in nerve cells react differently when exposed to the tau protein, which plays an important role in Alzheimer's disease.
Similar news · Read more »
- Brain's timing linked with timescales of the natural visual world
09-05-2007 · EurekAlert!
Researchers have long attempted to unravel the code used by the neurons of the brain to represent our visual world. By studying the way the brain rapidly and precisely encodes natural visual events that occur on a slower timescale, a team of Harvard bioengineers and brain scientists from the State University of New York have moved one step closer towards solving this riddle.
Similar news · Read more »
- Insight into dopamine role suggests new treatment pathway for Parkinson's
10-18-2006 · EurekAlert!
Dopamine (DA) not only functions as a neurotransmitter, a chemical messenger between neurons by which one neuron triggers another, researchers have found. It also appears to coordinate the activity of a particular neural circuitry. In studies with mice, they found evidence that the dopamine deficiency in Parkinson's and other related movement disorders may cause loss of muscle control and paralysis due to disruption of coordinated activity in this circuit.
Similar news · Read more »
