Bama & Harvard Researchers Hone in on a Protein’s Precise Role in Disease Prevention

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Alabama
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<p>TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Building upon work initiated by University of Alabama scientists, Harvard Medical School researchers, collaborating with UA and others, took another step in cracking the code behind a protein’s precise role in the disease dystonia and, along the way, discovered a new lead for cystic fibrosis research, according to a journal article publishing today. </p>

<p>The research, publishing in this week’s Nature Communications, describes the location and mechanism within a cell where a specific protein, torsinA, normally works to degrade misfolded proteins before those faulty proteins trigger problems associated with the neurological movement disorder called dystonia, said Dr. Guy Caldwell, professor of biological sciences at UA and one of the University’s three co-authors on the article.</p>

<p>“Last year, we started to define that torsinA is functioning within a quality control mechanism, and, in this latest paper, we hone in on the precise portion of cellular quality control that it seems to be managing,” Caldwell said.</p>

<p>The new findings suggest that in one area of cells, the endoplasmic reticulum – which Caldwell likens to a cell’s post office, a place where the cell’s proteins are packaged before transport to other parts of the cell – torsinA plays a key role.</p>

<p>~snipped~</p>

<p>[University</a> of Alabama News Harvard, UA Researchers Hone in on a Protein’s Precise Role in Disease Prevention](<a href=“http://uanews.ua.edu/2011/07/harvard-ua-researchers-hone-in-on-a-proteins-precise-role-in-disease-prevention/]University”>http://uanews.ua.edu/2011/07/harvard-ua-researchers-hone-in-on-a-proteins-precise-role-in-disease-prevention/)</p>

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<p>Very interesting!</p>

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<p>Yay for the Worm Shack (and all the peeps I know researching there)!</p>