Posted on | CategoriesNeurobiology / School of Medicine | PI: Jason Shepherd, PhD

PNMA2 Forms Immunogenic Non-Enveloped Virus-Like Capsids Associated with Paraneoplastic Neurological Syndrome

For people with a rare cancer-associated condition called paraneoplastic syndrome, sudden memory loss, loss of coordination, or other neurological symptoms are often the first sign that a tumor is growing somewhere in the body. The symptoms are caused by the immune system’s response to it. It turns out that some tumors produce brain proteins... Continue reading → PNMA2 Forms Immunogenic Non-Enveloped Virus-Like Capsids Associated with Paraneoplastic Neurological Syndrome
Posted on | CategoriesBiochemistry / School of Medicine | PI: Minna Roh-Johnson, PhD

Transferred Mitochondria Accumulate Reactive Oxygen Species, Promoting Proliferation

Cancer cells don’t act on their own. Their behavior is influenced by neighboring cells, which sometimes help them grow and spread. For instance, immune cells called macrophages patrol the body, engulfing and destroying potential threats. But when they interact with tumors, they can often produce signals that drive the disease. Continue reading → Transferred Mitochondria Accumulate Reactive Oxygen Species, Promoting Proliferation
Posted on | CategoriesNeurobiology | PI: Andres Villu Maricq, MD, PhD

Illuminating the Mechanisms Behind Neuronal “Learning”

The strength of each of the thousands of synapses in a given neuron can be rapidly and independently modified in response to experience. What scientists do not yet understand is how distinct synapses distributed along neuronal processes—branches of a neuron which can project far from the cell body—are supplied with the appropriate type and number of neurotransmitter receptors. Continue reading → Illuminating the Mechanisms Behind Neuronal “Learning”
Posted on | CategoriesBiochemistry / Human Genetics | PI: Wesley I. Sundquist, PhD & Nels C. Elde, PhD

A Protein that Blocks Virus Budding

A collaboration between the labs of University of Utah Health researchers Nels Elde, PhD, and Wesley Sundquist, PhD, showed that some mammals contain duplicated and shortened genes for a key ESCRT protein. The resulting “retroCHMP3” proteins block the release of HIV and other enveloped viruses. Continue reading → A Protein that Blocks Virus Budding
Posted on | CategoriesBiochemistry | PI: Adam Hughes, PhD

A Cellular Structure that Protects Against Amino Acid Stress

Amino acids form the basic building blocks of all life, used by cells both as fuel and in building proteins and other complex molecules. Cellular amino acid levels must be tightly controlled. Amino acid surplus is problematic and is a characteristic of many age-related diseases, including cancer and diabetes. Scientists do not yet fully understand how cells detect and respond to amino acid excess, and how this excess causes cellular damage. Continue reading → A Cellular Structure that Protects Against Amino Acid Stress
Posted on | CategoriesBiochemistry | PI: Wesley I. Sundquist, PhD

Reconstituting HIV Replication in a Test Tube

Reverse transcription and integration are key events in retrovirus replication and are also targets of successful anti-HIV therapies. Reverse transcription creates a double-stranded DNA copy of the viral RNA genome, and integration archives that copy within the genome of the infected cell. However, studies of the mechanisms underlying these steps of the viral life cycle remain challenging because these processes are performed by viral core particles located deep within the infected cell cytoplasm and nucleus. Continue reading → Reconstituting HIV Replication in a Test Tube
Posted on | CategoriesBiochemistry / Diabetes and Metabolism | PI: Jared P. Rutter, PhD

How Cells Choose to Create Energy

To supply their energy needs, cells typically choose between utilizing glucose in the cytoplasm (aerobic glycolysis and lactic acid fermentation) or “burning” pyruvate in the mitochondria (mitochondrial carbohydrate oxidation). Although this is arguably the most fundamental metabolic decision that cells make, before 2012 it was not clear how cells import pyruvate into mitochondria to fuel ATP production. Continue reading → How Cells Choose to Create Energy
Posted on | CategoriesDrug Discovery / Medicinal Chemistry | PI: Eric W. Schmidt, PhD

How Microbes Make Drug-like Molecules

Many life-saving drugs come from natural sources such as microbes. Learning how host organisms produce these drugs is an area of intense interest because scientists could exploit the pathways to produce more and better drug variants. Schmidt and colleagues have elucidated the mechanisms by which microbes produce one class of drug-like molecules, the Ribosomally-synthesized and Post-translationally modified Peptides (RiPPs). Continue reading → How Microbes Make Drug-like Molecules