Doctoral student Cassandra Hayne, working with Saskia Naher, PhD, found that a specific mutated version of a lipoprotein binds more effectively to liver cells, thus explaining decreased levels of triglycerides in blood.
Published today in Nature, the discovery has major implications for the study of motivation, decision making, as well as addiction and other disorders.
With a whiff of the opposite sex, these hormone-sensitive neurons trigger pro-social behavior in mice and could play roles in anxiety, depression, and other mood-related conditions in humans.
UNC clinical geneticists are part of a national consortium of researchers studying the ins and outs of genome sequencing for newborn health screenings and beyond.
Babies, Children's Health, Genetics, Pediatric Medicine, Research
The new research technique, developed by researchers at the UNC School of Medicine and UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, has the potential to illuminate the roles of previously inaccessible proteins important for health and disease.
The basic biological process called alternative splicing proves vital in making sure important muscle cell proteins switch from their fetal forms to their adult forms. Not doing so could lead to muscle defects and disorders.
Variants of the human version of the gene may help explain why people differ so much in their ability to survive artery blockages.
UNC Lineberger researchers led by Dr. Timothy R. Gershon report preclinical findings showing promise for targeting a gene linked to microcephaly in infants as a treatment for medulloblastoma.
