Tuesday, October 20, 2009

“Researchers reveal mechanism for neurone self-preservation - Science Centric” plus 4 more

“Researchers reveal mechanism for neurone self-preservation - Science Centric” plus 4 more

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Researchers reveal mechanism for neurone self-preservation - Science Centric

Posted: 20 Oct 2009 04:18 AM PDT

Tsuruta et al. find that a lipid kinase directs a voltage-gated calcium channel's degradation to save neurones from a lethal dose of overexcitement. The study appears in the 19 October issue of the Journal of Cell Biology (www.jcb.org).

An important player in cellular signalling, calcium is also terribly toxic at high levels. Neurones have evolved ways to protect themselves against the calcium influxes that come during periods of intense electrical activity. One way to limit the calcium flood is to remove the gatekeepers, calcium channels, from the cell surface. How neurones direct this is clinically important in a range of disorders, including stroke, Parkinson's disease, and Alzheimer's disease.

In a proteomic screen for binding partners of the CaV1.2 channel, Tsuruta et al. extracted what seemed a strange companion at first: PIKfyve, the lipid kinase that generates PI(3,5)P2 and promotes the maturation of endosomes into lysosomes. Other groups had recently shown that mutations affecting PI(3,5)P2 production cause degeneration of excitable cells in both mice and humans, including mutants found in ALS and Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease. The team hypothesised that PIKfyve might be directing CaV1.2 degradation. Using glutamate excitation to simulate excitotoxic stress, the authors showed that CaV1.2 is internalised, associates with PIKfyve, and is degraded in the lysosome. When Tsuruta et al. squelched levels of PIKfyve or PI(3,5)P2, excess channels stayed at the surface and left neurones vulnerable to apoptosis.

The findings clarify how this neuroprotective mechanism unfolds and suggest that existing calcium channel - blocking drugs might aid patients with neurodegenerative disorders stemming from a PI(3,5)P2 defect.

Source: Rockefeller University Press

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Our Brains Have The Amazing Ability To Be Energy Efficient! - Med India

Posted: 15 Oct 2009 10:03 PM PDT

The amount of energy needed for action potentials was previously estimated using a giant nerve cell from squid. Now, researchers at the Max-Planck Institute for Brain Research in Germany show that squid cell studies overestimated the amount of energy necessary to generate an action potential by almost a factor of four, suggesting human brains have the same potential to be energy efficient.

The researchers used a novel technique to record the voltage generated by nerve cells to "show that a rather subtle separation between the timing of sodium entry and potassium exit during action potentials can determine how much energy is expended to maintain the ionic gradients," Murthy says.

Murthy goes on to say that "[these results] are important, not just for a basic understanding of brain metabolism, but also for interpreting signals detected by non-invasive brain imaging techniques." Sorensen concludes that "the amazing thing is that we didn't realize the result a long time ago!"

Source-Eurekalert
ARU

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A biology teacher from Des Lacs-Burlington is a finalist for this year ... - KFYR-TV

Posted: 12 Oct 2009 04:52 PM PDT

A biology teacher from Des Lacs-Burlington is a finalist for this year`s North Dakota Teacher of the Year award.

Mary Eldredge-Sandbo is in her 27th year at Des Lacs-Burlington high school.

Sanbo is among four other finalists which were announced today by the state Department of Public Instruction.

KMOT featured Sanbo in an Education in Action story last December. With Sandbo`s help Des Lacs-Burlington high school has received $340,000 dollars through grants.

With the money, the school has been able to purchase computers, projectors, smart boards and other teaching equipment.

The award winner will be announced at the North Dakota Education Association conference Oct. 22 in Grand Forks.

Henk Stunnenberg's lab applies Genomatix NextGen sequencing data ... - Genetic Engineering News

Posted: 20 Oct 2009 08:00 AM PDT

Oct 20 2009, 10:01 AM EST

Henk Stunnenberg's lab applies Genomatix NextGen sequencing data analysis

EUREKALERT

Contact: Klaus May
may@genomatix.de
49-895-997-660
Genomatix Software GmbH

The Nijmegen Centre for Molecular Life Sciences' experiences feed back into Genomatix' further developments

Genomatix Software, the leading provider of solutions for the comprehensive analysis of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) data, announced today that the Nijmegen Centre for Molecular Life Sciences (NCMLS) installed a Genomatix Genome Analyzer (GGA) at Henk Stunnenbergs lab. Henk Stunnenberg, a pioneer in transcription factor analysis and epigenetic research, is full professor, head of the Department of Molecular Biology, and a member of EMBO.

The Genomatix Genome Analyzer delivers a complete and integrated solution for the downstream analysis of NGS data. Rich biological background knowledge, integrated in databases and comprehensive software tools, enable a molecular level understanding of the biology being studied within a few hours.

"The GGA has the advantage of incorporating all of the renowned software and data content Genomatix has built over the past 11 years, and putting an excellent NGS overlay on it all" says Prof.Dr.Henk Stunnenberg. "This allows us to drill down into the biology of our systems in an easy to use workflow environment with all their terrific science in the background".

Martin Seifert Chief Executive for Marketing and Consulting at Genomatix says: "I am very proud that Dr. Stunnenberg has chosen our system. With our combined hardware/software approach, we are able to get the most out of data from Next Generation Sequencing experiments in surprisingly short time. Especially in the field of ChIP-Seq and RNA sequencing. Thus, shortening the time to publication significantly. For Dr. Stunnenbergs group, with its many brilliant scientists, our integrated systems are greatly facilitating their data analysis process. We are very pleased that the response from the group is very positive, and their feedback will contribute substantially in helping to define the direction of further developments of our technology at Genomatix".

The Nijmegen Centre for Molecular Life Sciences (NCMLS) is a leading multidisciplinary research school within the domain of molecular mechanisms of disease and particularly in the fields of molecular medicine, cell biology and translational research. The research is focused in keeping with the mission towards understanding the cellular basis of disease. Henk Stunnenbergs research interest is in the unraveling of the molecular basis of cell behaviour emanating from the genetic and epigenetic code contained in the nucleus in the context of health and disease

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Wellness guru's latest tome touts 'biology of happiness' - Island Packet Online

Posted: 19 Oct 2009 09:08 PM PDT

Eastern philosophy guru Deepak Chopra says he has one way to reform the state of health care -- by reconnecting with our spiritual side.

Once we do that, he said, we'll alter the structure of our brains, optimize our genetic functioning and stop taking so many unnecessary medications.

Chopra calls this the biology of happiness and expounds on it in his latest book, "Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul."

Chopra said what we think and how we feel can physically change our brains and bodies. He pointed to research on neuropeptides, which are protein-like molecules used by brain cells to communicate information to one another.

Thinking a thought or feeling an emotion, he said, causes a synapse to fire neuropeptides, not just to other brain cells, but to cells throughout the body including the immune system. Once a cell receives a neuropeptide, he added, its information changes that cell down to the genetic level.

"Now we're starting to see that how you behave, how you think, your personal relationships, social interactions, environment, diet, stress levels, they all modulate the activities of your genes," he said. "So what you think can change your genes and the structure of your brain."

Our relationship with time also affects our brains and bodies because if you think you're running out of time, your biological clock speeds up, he said. Connecting with our souls through love, passion, kindness, joy and so on does more than any drug to improve our health, because it "optimizes and up-regulates genes." Meditating helps with this, he said.

Chopra maintains that each year, Americans spend $700 billion on meds they don't need and surgeons perform 5 million unnecessary surgeries.

"If we just paid attention to those two things we could end the health care reform debate and stop filling out insurance forms," he said.

Chopra is a medically trained endocrinologist and former chief of staff at New England Memorial Hospital. He said he quit traditional medicine because "we were acting like legalized drug pushers and prolonging suffering."

Since then, he's written 50 books, many of which have become best-sellers. In 1996, Time Magazine lauded him as having "done more than anyone else in the U.S. to create a vocabulary for the intersection of faith and medicine."

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