"Trim"ming PolyQ proteins with engineered PML.

Protein abnormalities are the major cause of neurodegenerative diseases such as spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA). Protein misfolding and impaired degradation leads to the build-up of protein aggregates inside the cell, which may further cause cellular degeneration. Reducing levels of either the soluble misfolded form of the protein or its precipitated aggregate, even marginally, could significantly improve cellular health.

Understanding How Wnt Influences Destruction Complex Activity and β-Catenin Dynamics.

Despite extensive research on the canonical Wnt signaling pathway, the mechanism by which this signal downregulates the activity of destruction complexes and inhibits β-catenin degradation remains controversial. In particular, recent attention has focused on two main competing mechanisms-inhibition of phosphorylation and inhibition of ubiquitination. Our combined experimental and theoretical analysis demonstrates that the disassembly of a fraction of the intracellular destruction complexes results in the partial inhibition of both β-catenin phosphorylation and ubiquitination.

Dissecting the structural and functional features of the Luteinizing hormone receptor using receptor specific single chain fragment variables.

The Luteinizing hormone receptor (LHR) has a large extracellular domain (amino acid residues, a.a.1-355) and a transmembrane domain (TMD; a.

Biodegradable and biocompatible polyampholyte microgels derived from chitosan, carboxymethyl cellulose and modified methyl cellulose.

Two biocompatible and biodegradable polyampholyte microgels, namely chitosan-carboxymethyl cellulose (CS-CMC) and chitosan-modified methyl cellulose (CS-ModMC) were synthesized by an inverse microemulsion technique. The CS-CMC microgel system was pH-responsive while the CS-ModMC system possessed both pH and thermo-responsive properties. For CS-CMC system, the number of -OCHCOOH and -NH groups was determined to be 1.