Author: sh ytlk

Parkinson’s disease protein structure solved inside cells using novel technique

The top contributor to familial Parkinson’s disease is mutations in leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2), whose large and difficult structure has finally been solved, paving the way for targeted therapies. University of California, San Diego researchers Reika Watanabe, Robert Buschauer, Jan Böhning, Martina Audagnotto in the laboratory led by Elizabeth Villa used a pioneering technique to reveal the structure of pathogenic LRRK2 in action. Watanabe will present the team’s research on Wednesday, February 19 at the 64th Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society in San Diego, California.
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Researchers show how Ebola virus hijacks host lipids

Robert Stahelin studies some of the world’s deadliest viruses. Filoviruses, including Ebola virus and Marburg virus, cause viral hemorrhagic fever with high fatality rates. Stahelin, professor at Purdue University, examines how these viruses take advantage of human host cells. His latest research, which he will present on Wednesday, February 19 at the 64th Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society in San Diego, California, show how Ebola interacts with a human lipid and that FDA approved drugs that alter lipids block Ebola infection in cells.
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Cancer immunotherapy target helps fight solid tumors

Yvonne Chen engineers immune cells to target their most evasive enemy: cancer. New cancer immunotherapies generate immune cells that are effective killers of blood cancers, but they have a hard time with solid tumors. Chen, Associate Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and a member of the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, is designing ways for immune cells to “outsmart” solid tumors. She will present her research on Tuesday, February 18, at the 64th Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society in San Diego, California.
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MRI method provides unprecedented insight into the brain’s wiring network

Thoughts, sensations, and emotions zap across the brain via a meshwork of fine nerve fibers called axons. Axon size is crucially important for general brain function as well as in certain neurological conditions. Experts have been striving to establish a means to noninvasively measure these fibers for many years. An international team of researchers has now developed a novel MRI method that manages to do just that.
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The (un)usual suspect—novel coronavirus identified

In early December, a few people in the city of Wuhan in the Hubei province of China began falling sick after going to a local seafood market. They experienced symptoms like cough, fever, and shortness of breath, and even complications related to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). The immediate diagnosis was pneumonia, but the exact cause was unexplained. What caused this new outbreak? Is it the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-CoV? Is it the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS)-CoV?
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Study links natural sugars in breastmilk to early childhood height and weight

Human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) found in breastmilk may influence a child’s growth from infancy through early childhood, according to a study supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The study also suggested that maternal obesity may affect HMO composition in breastmilk. The study was led by Lars Bode, Ph.D., at the University of California, San Diego. It appears in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
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