Structure of Cell Membrane Protein Shown
Posted on: Thursday, 4 August 2005, 18:00 CDT
Hebrew University and Max Planck Institute of Germany researchers have discovered the structure of a membrane protein that might help in new medications.
Membrane protein research is at the forefront of modern biological study, with great potential for development of new medical treatments and genetic engineering of plants, the researchers say.
Etana Padan and Dr. Rimon Avraham, both of the Silberman Institute of Life Sciences at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and Hartmut Michel of the Max Planck Institute for biophysics in Frankfurt, Germany, say proteins such as NhaA are found in the membranes of every living cell from bacteria to humans.
The cell membrane is the crossroads of busy, two-way traffic through which materials and impulses travel into and out of the cell. The fatty cell membrane is impenetrable to most of these materials and signals; and it is therefore the proteins within the membranes that are responsible for the communication between the cell and its environment. More than 60 percent of today's medications are directed at the cell membrane proteins.
The findings are published in the journal Nature.
Source: United Press International
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