In recent years, support has grown for the idea that the same aggregating protein can fold up into different toxic shapes, giving rise to distinct neurodegenerative diseases. Now, in the August 29 Nature, researchers led by Michel Goedert and Sjors Scheres at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England, in collaboration with Bernardino […]
Structure of Pick’s tau distinct from AD tau
How cells selectively enhance gene expression in response to stress
Cells need to respond quickly when they encounter stress conditions in order to avoid consequences such as cell death. New research from Madan Babu’s group in the LMB’s Structural Studies Division has identified a mechanism by which cells can enhance the expression of stress-response genes by increasing the efficiency of protein synthesis specifically for these […]
Wanda Kukulski awarded the Royal Microscopical Society’s Alan Agar Medal
Wanda Kukulski, group leader in the LMB’s Cell Biology Division, has been awarded the Royal Microscopical Society’s Alan Agar Medal for Electron Microscopy for 2019 for her work in the field of Correlative Light-Electron Microscopy. The Royal Microscopical Society launched a series of medals in 2014 to coincide with its 175th anniversary and awards these […]
Melina Schuh writes about the turning point in her career: becoming a group leader, and a mother
Melina Schuh, a former group leader in the LMB’s Cell Biology Division, has written about her experiences setting up her group at the LMB while also starting a family, for a Focus on Women in Science collection of articles in Nature Cell Biology. More…
Tau filament structures differ between neurodegenerative diseases
Michel Goedert’s group in the LMB’s Neurobiology Division and Sjors Scheres’ group in the LMB’s Structural Studies Division have used electron cryo-microscopy (cryo-EM) to solve the structures of tau filaments from patients with the frontotemporal dementia Pick’s disease. These new structures show how tau folds in disease-specific ways, providing evidence for the hypothesis that different […]
How neuropeptide signalling controls sensitisation in response to touch in C. elegans
When an animal detects a stimulus that might signal danger, this primes sensory and motor organs to respond more readily to further stimulation. This is called sensitisation and is one aspect of the more general phenomenon of arousal, in which animals become more alert and can respond more effectively to potential threats. However, the basic […]