Sticking to this Soulless Quest

Sticking with Carrots and Sticks (Sticking Points Aside): A Response to Ventakapuram, Goldberg, and Forrow

Sticking to PIP2

Tucker, and Edwin Chapman (University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI) find that PIP 2 is a plasma membrane dock for synaptotagmin-1 (syt), a transmembrane protein localized in secretory vesicle membranes, when calcium is absent. This dock may ensure speedy and directed fusion in response to calcium influx. The syt dock has two calcium-binding domains in its cytoplasmic region, called C 2 A and C 2 B...

Sticking to the nuclear envelope

mutation in torsinA, an AAA ATPase protein, causes DYT1 dystonia in humans. On page 855, Goodchild and Dauer identify two protein binding partners of torsinA, one that localizes to the ER membrane and one that spans the inner membrane of the nuclear envelope. The team hypothesizes that DYT1 is a nuclear envelope disease , and that identification of such protein complexes will provide a mechanis...

Sticking Points

Nowadays a blood test usually requires a doctor’s visit, a needle poke in the arm, and a day-long wait for results to come back from a lab. So when Silicon Valley start-up Theranos promised a device that could perform more than a hundred of the most commonly ordered blood tests from just a fingerstick, doctors, patients, and investors were quick to get behind the company. Valued at $9 billion i...

Sticking together.

R signals at the neuromuscular junction and at synapses between neurons are carried by small molecules, called neurotransmitters, that are released from the presynaptic terminal and bind to ligand-gated ion channels in the postsynaptic membrane. When transmitter binds, a small pore opens through which ions flow, resulting in a transient depolarization or hyperpolarization of the membrane and tr...