Archive for the ‘Diagnostics’ Category

The infectivity of a virus is determined by its ability to
avoid the whole machinery of the host cell defense presented. Vaccinia virus
(orthopoxvirus family of which belongs to the virus which causes smallpox)
exhibits a surprising: it is able to induce motility of cells infected, as
evidenced by work done in the Motility Laboratory Cellular Cancer Research in
London. The first author of an article published in Science, Ferran Valderrama,
is a Spanish left the ranks of the Institute of Biomedical Research August Pi I
Sunyer, University of Barcelona and is currently studying in the English
capital, the cellular mechanisms involved in cancer . Read the rest of this entry »

Cancer is a genetic disease and epigenetics. The first thing is have ample evidence for years. Of the latter being generated every day more conclusive evidence. Demonstrate it has cost, despite the intense research carried out in this field and know the common feature in cancer cells provides the inactivation of tumor suppressor genes by mechanisms such as changes in the patterns of methylation of histones and DNA. Read the rest of this entry »

Brain development is a highly complex phenomenon that includes several sequential steps: determining regional specification of neuronal types, control of cell migration, formation of neural networks, etc. The correct orchestration of all elements and processes involved is essential for the development, organization and functioning of the brain. Among the agents that may be taken into account, a glycoprotein, reeling, has a prominent role for the proper organization and cellular architecture of the central nervous system. But, despite this prior knowledge, we know little of its role in the adult brain, although it could be involved in signaling processes linked to neurodegeneration. Read the rest of this entry »

Phenylketonuria (PKU) is a disease caused by mutations in the gene for phenylalanine hydroxylase (PAH) that is inherited as an autosomal recessive and is the most common genetic disorder of amino acid metabolism. This disease has a high genetic diversity with over 500 described mutations associated with disease. The classic way to establish a correlation between genotype and phenotype in patients has been the development of genetic and clinical studies using a large number of patients homozygous or hemizygous functional. However, given the genetic heterogeneity, many patients can not be included in this analysis, the rarity of the mutations they carry, or the wearing of two different mutations nonzero. The in vitro expression of more than a hundred of these mutations indicates that the main mechanism responsible for the disease is the destabilization of the protein and defects in intracellular folding.


Spanish researchers from the Department of Biomedicine, University of Bergen (Norway) and the Centre for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona have collaborated to analyze the impact energy of 318 amino acid change mutations in the PAH protein using the algorithm FoldX and crystal structures available for truncated forms of the protein in rat and human. The tests have allowed to dissect the effect of mutations: effects on the environment of the mutated residue (parameter y0) and the effect of Van der Waals collisions with debris coming (parameter m) that may lead to reorganization of the structure protein.


The fact that a correlation is observed between the phenotypes and associated energy penalties, allowed to set values of these parameters for the different phenotypes and use in the prediction of phenotypes associated with 238 other rare mutations, through a novel method . The method can be applied to other protein-folding diseases associated with mutations of amino acid change.

Three years ago, Eduard Batlle is ICREA research professor of the Generalitat de Catalunya and the principal investigator and coordinator of the Translational Oncology Program and the Institute of Applied biomedical research in Barcelona (IRB Barcelona). It has a complete history that includes extended periods of research in leading laboratories in oncology: completed his doctoral thesis at the Municipal Institute of Medical Research (IMIM) in 1999, spent nearly two years of postdoctoral researcher in the group in Germany and Miguel Beato four more in the Netherlands Institute for Developmental Biology. Read the rest of this entry »

Three years ago, Eduard Batlle is ICREA research professor of the Generalitat de Catalunya and the principal investigator and coordinator of the Translational Oncology Program and the Institute of Applied biomedical research in Barcelona (IRB Barcelona). It has a complete history that includes extended periods of research in leading laboratories in oncology: completed his doctoral thesis at the Municipal Institute of Medical Research (IMIM) in 1999, spent nearly two years of postdoctoral researcher in the group in Germany and Miguel Beato four more in the Netherlands Institute for Developmental Biology . Read the rest of this entry »

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are highly toxic compounds produced in different metabolic processes. Normally, cells are capable of defending against such agents by the action of enzymes that degrade. However, increased ROS levels above the acceptable physiological limits leads to oxidative stress that may alter normal cellular functions and trigger cell death. In fact, oxidative stress in nerve cells is clearly implicated in the progression of various neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. In this sense, the study of the mechanisms that control oxidative cell death is an important part of current research of these diseases. Read the rest of this entry »

Understanding how cells organize and coordinate to form the tissues and organs in living organisms (morphogenesis) is a basic question in developmental biology. The morphogenesis requires a number of cellular processes that occur in a coordinated way in small groups of cells, including proliferation, migration, differentiation, growth, and reposicionamento rearrangement of cells within the tissue. The end result of all these processes is to form a body-dimensional structure-from the initial flat structure which are the first cells of the embryo. Read the rest of this entry »