Publications by authors named "I Woods"
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neuromuscular disease with no effective treatments, in part caused by variations in progression and the absence of biomarkers. Mice carrying the SOD1G93A transgene with different genetic backgrounds show variable disease rates, reflecting the diversity of patients. While extensive research has been done on the involvement of the central nervous system, the role of skeletal muscle remains underexplored.
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- Transfer RNA-derived small RNAs (tsRNAs) are important non-coding RNAs involved in various cellular processes, such as inhibiting translation and responding to stress.
- Researchers identified specific tsRNA profiles in animal models of neurodegenerative diseases like ALS, FTD, and PD to find disease-specific and shared tsRNAs.
- They discovered variations in tsRNA expression across different models, with specific patterns linking to synaptic and neuronal functions, highlighting potential disease fingerprints that need to be explored in human conditions.
The extracellular matrix plays a critical role in modulating cell behaviour in the developing and adult central nervous system influencing neural cell morphology, function and growth. Neurons and astrocytes, play vital roles in neural signalling and support respectively and respond to cues from the surrounding matrix environment. However, a better understanding of the impact of specific individual extracellular matrix proteins on both neurons and astrocytes is critical for advancing the development of matrix-based scaffolds for neural repair applications.
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- Animal locomotion relies on coordination between the nervous system, sensory inputs, and muscle movements, making it an important area for understanding nervous system health and dysfunction.
- Tardigrades, the smallest known walking animals, serve as a model for studying limb-driven locomotion due to their simple nervous system and distinct movement patterns of their eight legs.
- Researchers developed open-source tracking tools to analyze over 13,000 strides from >100 tardigrades, revealing insights into walking speed, coordination, and how these factors relate to their aging, species differences, and responses to certain treatments like disulfiram.
Fibroblast Growth Factors and their receptors (FGFRs) comprise a cell signaling module that can stimulate signaling by Ras and the kinases Raf, MEK, and ERK to regulate animal development and homeostatic functions. In Caenorhabditis elegans, the sole FGFR ortholog EGL-15 acts with the GRB2 ortholog SEM-5 to promote chemoattraction and migration by the sex myoblasts (SMs) and fluid homeostasis by the hypodermis (Hyp7). Cell-specific differences in EGL-15 signaling were suggested by the phenotypes caused by egl-15(n1457), an allele that removes a region of its C-terminal domain (CTD) known to bind SEM-5.
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