Mechanisms Driving Inherited Heart Disease
Northwestern Medicine scientists have identified a novel mechanism for how mutations in desmoplakin — a protein that helps cells stick together — can lead to cardiac arrhythmias and other diseases.
Browsing: Scientific Advances
Exploring the Mechanisms of Poxvirus Replication
A study published in the journal Cell uncovers how poxviruses take control of a protein complex in order to enhance their replication and counteract an immune response in hosts.
Long Non-Coding RNA May Play Role in Fat Metabolism
A team of scientists has identified thousands of lincRNAs — long non-coding RNA molecules produced by so-called “junk DNA” — that are unique to human fat cells and may play an important role in fat metabolism.
Mapping Calcium Channels Provides New Insights into Disease
Northwestern Medicine scientists have discovered the activation mechanism of a calcium channel, providing new insights for future drug development targeting this calcium signaling pathway.
Understanding the Epigenetics of Sex Determination
A team of scientists has identified a key enhancer of Sox9 — a gene critical for male sex development — and demonstrated that deleting the enhancer results in male-to-female sex reversal in animal models.
Increased Cell Recycling Could Treat Aging-Related Conditions
Enhancing autophagy, the system that recycles old or dysfunctional cells, could have therapeutic effects in a variety of aging-related diseases, according to a pair of Northwestern Medicine studies.
New Insights Into Nicotine’s Effect on Reward Pathways
A Northwestern Medicine study has expanded the understanding of nicotine’s influences on the brain’s reward pathway, with implications for the development of anti-addiction therapies.
Understanding Structures That Hold Cells Together
A study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provides new insights into the organization of a key protein called cadherin within structures called adherens junctions, which help cells stick together.
How the Brain Anticipates Errors and Encodes Expectations
New study demonstrates the midbrain’s role in encoding identity errors and how those are used to update expectations in the orbitofrontal cortex.
Genome Analysis Identifies Mutations in Pediatric Cancers
Scientists found more than 100 possible cancer-causing mutations and defective alleles in a large-scale genetic analysis of pediatric cancers that was co-authored by Elizabeth Perlman, MD, and published in Nature.