Ubiquitin

Nerves. Credit: Mahmoud Ali-Saleh

A mechanism has been discovered that causes sleep apnea in sick children

One of the diseases resulting from such mutations in the PHOX2B gene is the disease CCHS. This is a rare and life-threatening syndrome in which babies, children and adults stop breathing as soon as they fall asleep. Patients must be connected to ventilators to
scientific picture. A XNUMXD model system of human neurons in a dish. In green and purple: nerve cells expressing a protein that is defective in the ubiquitin system. As a result of this expression, the pathology that characterizes Alzheimer's patients is created - the formation of amyloid clusters (in red) outside the cells

Technion researchers have identified the mechanism leading to the formation of protein aggregates involved in the development of Alzheimer's disease

Toxic proteins accumulate in the brains of Alzheimer's patients. In the familial Alzheimer's patients, the accumulation mechanism is clear since there is a circumstantial relationship between the mutations and the identity of the defective proteins. In the random disease, on the other hand, the cause of the accumulation of proteins
A cross-section of a skin cancer tumor (melanoma) that metastasizes into the bloodstream. Image: from shutterstock

Fighting melanoma: the challenge of drug resistance

Solved spatial structure of the ubiquitin chain with the AIRAPL protein (yellow). It can be seen that the UIM2 interaction surface of AIRAPL enables specific binding to the LYS48 conformation of the ubiquitin chain and allows the last ubiquitin in the chain additional available binding space. Photo: Technion spokespeople

The ubiquitin chain unfolds

Zhihao Zhuang (second from right) and his team

An innovative method for preparing proteins