Fatal protein interactions may explain neurological diseases

sea-maid submitted, created time 2 months 2 weeks (esciencenews.com)

In a collaborative study at the University of California, San Diego, investigators from neurosciences, chemistry and medicine, as well as the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) have investigated how proteins involved in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease interact to form unique complexes. Their findings explain why Alzheimer's patients might develop Parkinson's, and vice versa. The new and unique molecular structures they discovered can now be used to model and develop new drugs for these devastating neurological diseases

1 comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: Parkinson's Alzheimer's' protein-protein interactions proteomics protein interactions neuroscience neurological disease

Scientists develop new method to investigate origin of life

sea-maid submitted, created time 2 months 2 weeks (esciencenews.com)

Scientists at Penn State have developed a new computational method that they say will help them to understand how life began on Earth. The team's method has the potential to trace the evolutionary histories of proteins all the way back to either cells or viruses, thus settling the debate once and for all over which of these life forms came first. "We have just begun to tap the potential power of this method," said Randen Patterson, a Penn State assistant professor of biology and one of the project's leaders

Submit comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: origins of life evolution evolutionary biology proteomics origin of life

Researchers unveil vital key to cancer

sea-maid submitted, created time 3 months 2 weeks (www.manchester.ac.uk)

University of Manchester scientists have uncovered the 3D structure of Mps1 – a protein that regulates the number of chromosomes during cell division and thus has an essential role in the prevention of cancer – which will lead to the design of safer and more effective therapies.

Submit comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: kinases cancer research cancer therapies proteomics Mps1 cancer

A Lipidic-Sponge Phase Screen for Membrane Protein Crystallization

jerry submitted, created time 4 months 5 days (www.structure.org)

A major current deficit in structural biology is the lack of high-resolution structures of eukaryotic membrane proteins, many of which are key drug targets for the treatment of disease. Numerous eukaryotic membrane proteins require specific lipids for their stability and activity, and efforts to crystallize and solve the structures of membrane proteins that do not address the issue of lipids frequently end in failure rather than success. To help address this problem, they have developed a sparse matrix crystallization screen consisting of 48 lipidic-sponge phase conditions

1 comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: lipids proteomics drug discovery drug targets protein crystallization membrane proteins

First direct observations of protein-synthesis mechanism

jane2007 submitted, created time 7 months 2 weeks (www.ucsc.edu)

An UCSC scientist and his collaborators have made the first direct observations of the mechanism for protein synthesis in living cells.

1 comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: messenger RNA DNA mRNA proteins proteomics lasers ribosomes protein synthesis

Serum Levels of Apolipoprotein A-II as a Potential Marker for Cholangiocarcinoma

Transcriptomic and Proteomic Analyses of Pericycle Cells of the Maize Primary Root

yangjane submitted, created time 1 year 1 week (www.plantphysiol.org)

Each plant cell type expresses a unique transcriptome and proteome at different stages of differentiation dependent on its developmental fate. This study compared gene expression and protein accumulation in cell-cycle-competent primary root pericycle cells of maize (Zea mays) prior to their first division and lateral root initiation. These are the only root cells that maintain the competence to divide after they leave the meristematic zone.

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MIT scholars discover key blood protein

Hecate submitted, created time 1 year 1 month (www.eurekalert.org)

Ah, some blood-based news just weeks before Halloween. It seems that a team led by Dr. Jane-Jane Chen of MIT has uncovered a protein, nicknamed HRI for short, that regulates the body's iron recycling system. This may have consequences for people suffering from protoporphyria.

(You will have to click into the article for the full name. This is good news, but I don't want to give myself carpal tunnel syndrome for it.)

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GenScript Named VWR Biosciences CRO Partner

Iterative proteomics on the fly

yoyotaxi submitted, created time 1 year 6 months (www.nature.com)

Understanding how proteins and their complex interaction networks convert the genomic information into a dynamic living organism is a fundamental challenge in biological sciences. As an important step towards understanding the systems biology of a complex eukaryote, researchers cataloged 63% of the predicted Drosophila melanogaster proteome by detecting 9,124 proteins from 498,000 redundant and 72,281 distinct peptide identifications

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Comparative Proteomics of Colorectal Cancer: Abnormal Expression of Proteins within the Tumor Nest and Implication of HnRNP A1 as an Oncoprotein in Tumorigenesis

MedUnion submitted, created time 1 year 6 months (www.mupnet.com)

AIM: To decipher the key biochemical modulators of tumorigenesis and evaluate the potential of candidate proteins as biomarkers or targets for novel therapeutic intervention of colorectal cancer (CRC).
METHODS: Differentially expressed proteins in colorectal tumors were identified by gel-based proteomics, tandem mass spectrometry and NCBInr database interrogation, and further validated by Western blotting and immunohistochemical (IHC) staining

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On the Proper Use of Mass Accuracy in Proteomics

biscuits submitted, created time 1 year 8 months (www.mcponline.org)

Mass measurement is the main outcome of mass spectrometry-based proteomics yet the potential of recent advances in accurate mass measurements remains largely unexploited. There is not even a clear definition of mass accuracy in the proteomics literature, and we identify at least three uses of this term: anecdotal mass accuracy, statistical mass accuracy, and the maximum mass deviation (MMD) allowed in a database search. We suggest using the second of these terms as the generic one

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