Recent Publications in Prestigious Journals


Two papers by Martin Duennwald and collaborators at the Whitehead Institute, MIT, and several other institutions were recently published in the May 20 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (click for link to Duennwald web site).  These papers describe mechanisms by which the toxicity of prions and amyloid proteins can be attenuated, including the use of small molecule drugs.  Since amyloids and prions are responsible for devastating human diseases such as Alzheimer's and Mad Cow Disease, this work has important implications for human health.

In a paper published in the April 22 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in collaboration with research groups at Harvard, MGH and the U. of Chicago, Sarah Wilcox-Adelman (click for link to Wilcox-Adelman web site) describes the use of BBRI's new laser-scanning confocal microscope to analyze the way in which the anthrax bacillus subverts our immunological defenses.  This work illustratess the great value of BBRI's state-of-the-art electron microscope facility for solving biomedical ranging from cancer metastasis to infectious diseases.

The results of a collaboration between Lynne Coluccio (click for link to Coluccio web site) and Adjunct Scientist Michael Geeves at the University of Kent, England, are described in the April15 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. This work contributes to the understanding of how class I myosin in the hair cells of the inner ear is regulated by calcium so as to allow the ear to maintain sensitivity to new auditory stimuli, a key factor in hearing and deafness.

Roberto Dominguez, a former Principal Scientist at BBRI and now at the University of Pennsylvania, has published a paper in the April 11 issue of Science (abstract), which describes work initially done at BBRI and completed at the University of Pennsylvania that has led to the discovery that the protein leiomodin serves as a nucleator of actin filaments in muscle cells and is therefore a key player in the contraction of both skeletal and smooth muscle. (click for link to NIH Research Matters review)