Katja Röper, Independent Investigator Scientist in the LMB’s Cell Biology Division, has discovered a key mechanism of tissue and organ formation in fruit flies that might also apply in vertebrates. Many organs in both vertebrates and invertebrates, such as the gut, liver, kidney, vasculature and lung, are tubular in structure. The formation of tubular structures […]
Insight on Research
The proteasome: a vital amino acid recycling machine
The proteasome is essential for the controlled degradation of a large number of unwanted or damaged proteins in all cells and thereby controls virtually every cellular process. While it has long been known that inhibition of proteasome degradation is lethal, the underlying mechanisms have remained elusive. Anne Bertolotti’s group, in the LMB’s Neurobiology Division, have […]
First insight into peptide-receptor interaction
LMB scientists, Chris Tate and Yoko Shibata, have collaborated with researchers from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), USA, to provide the first detailed description of how a neuropeptide hormone, neurotensin, interacts with its receptor. Neurotensin modulates nerve cell activity in the brain. When bound to its receptor it commences a series of reactions in […]
Sweet answer to the origins of life
New research, from John Sutherland and Dougal Ritson in the LMB’s PNAC division, delivers a breakthrough in the chemistry of the origin of life. Whilst some maintain that life formed elsewhere in the Universe and was transported to earth, the duo’s findings, published in Nature Chemistry, suggest that the genetic material essential for all known […]
New insight into common mutations in human cancers
One of the most commonly mutated genes in human cancers is the lipid kinase PIK3CA (phosphoinositide 3-kinase alpha). Mutations can activate this enzyme, resulting in proliferation of tumour cells and resistance to programmed cell death or apoptosis. By applying the powerful technique of hydrogen/deuterium exchange mass spectrometry to map this complex system, a team of […]
Alcohol by-product destroys blood stem cells
New research shows that acetaldehyde, the breakdown product generated when the body removes alcohol, causes irreversible damage to the DNA of stem cells in the body’s ‘blood cell factory’ – the bone marrow. The research, published in Nature, was carried out by a team of scientists led by KJ Patel in the LMB’s PNAC Division. […]