Here are summaries of a selection of the papers published by GCB faculty in September 2020:
DISEASE
Alpha-synuclein SNCA appears to play a role in the origins of Parkinson's disease (PD); however, the normal function of this protein and the pathway that mediates its pathogenic effect has yet to be discovered. Ornit Chiba-Falek, Ph.D., was the senior author of a new study investigated the mechanistic role of SNCA in the nucleus utilizing isogenic human-induced pluripotent stem cells-derived neurons from PD patients with autosomal dominant mutations, A53T and SNCA-triplication, and their corresponding corrected lines by genome- and epigenome-editing. Read more*
REPRODUCTION
Early hypotheses stated that fast reproduction may be an adaptive response to harsh conditions early in life. Jenny Tung was part of a team that explored whether or not this idea may be true using 48 years of continuous, individual-based data from wild female baboons in the Amboseli ecosystem in Kenya. Read more
SINGLE CELL
Myeloid cells are being recognized more frequently as major players in transplant rejection. Xiling Shen was part of a team that used a murine kidney transplantation model and single-cell transcriptomics to better understand how myeloid cell subsets and their potential signaling pathways affect kidney transplant rejection. Read more
Greg Wray part of team that created a method to enable an examination of genes genes expressed before, during, and after an epithelial-mesenchymal transition with a focus on just the cells that undergo the transition. This approach, though not perfect, adds a new tool for uncovering the mechanism of EMT in this cell type. Read more
*Reprint from the Neurology Research Roundup by Will Alexander