NIGMS Archives
Protecting the injured kidney
Jun. 4, 2020—Leslie Gewin and colleagues have upended conventional dogma about Wnt/beta-catenin signaling in the kidney, finding that it protects against chronic kidney disease rather than promoting it.
Study explores how staph bacteria can survive in bone
Jun. 3, 2020—A comprehensive evaluation of the metabolic pathways that support Staphylococcus aureus (“staph”) growth during invasive bone infections could offer new targets for treatment.
Probing innate immunity
May. 19, 2020—Manuel Ascano team validates an inhibitor of the cGAS-STING signaling pathway, which is important for cellular innate immunity against bacteria, viruses, and our own damaged DNA.
The adaptable anthrax bacterium
May. 14, 2020—Vanderbilt researchers discover how anthrax bacterium defends itself against structural damage and resists the toxicity of the antimicrobial drug targocil.
A dual-purpose metabolic switch
May. 5, 2020—John York and colleagues have demonstrated that the protein Vip1 is a rare type of bifunctional enzyme: it can both synthesize and destroy key cellular signaling molecules.
Damage, disruption, delirium
Apr. 20, 2020—New findings suggest that treatments that decrease oxidative damage might help with postoperative delirium that occurs in up to 30% of cardiac surgery patients.
‘Tuning’ cell shape for division
Apr. 16, 2020—Dylan Burnette and colleagues have discovered that two forms of the molecular motor protein myosin have distinct roles in regulating cell shape during cell division.
Transporter’s role in gut barrier
Apr. 16, 2020—A disease-associated mutation in a transporter protein impairs gut barrier function, leading to gastrointestinal disease and chronic infections.
Cellular factor helps package flu genome
Mar. 23, 2020—New insights on influenza genome packaging could guide strategies for interfering with the virus’s life cycle and ability to cause infection.
Blocking stress-induced relapse
Mar. 19, 2020—Danny Winder and colleagues are teasing apart the actions of neurotransmitter receptors in a brain region linked to anxiety and addiction, with a goal of finding treatments for substance use disorders.
Clues to lung injury in preterm babies
Mar. 5, 2020—Jennifer Sucre and colleagues have discovered a factor that contributes to the pathological changes of bronchopulmonary dysplasia, the most common complication of preterm birth.
Looking through MudPIT for protein interactions
Feb. 25, 2020—The identification of novel protein interactions and sites of modification in proteins involved in mRNA translation adds to understanding of a process that is an important therapeutic target.
