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Some of the material in is restricted to members of the community. By logging in, you may be able to gain additional access to certain collections or items. If you have questions about access or logging in, please use the form on the Contact Page.
The linker of the nucleoskeleton and cytoskeleton (LINC) protein complex bridges the inner and outer nuclear membranes and regulates a range of nuclear activities that include telomere tethering and chromosome movement. The canonical...
Large-volume protein crystals are a prerequisite for neutron diffraction studies and their production represents a bottleneck in obtaining neutron structures. Many protein crystals that permit the collection of high-resolution X-ray...
Eukaryotic genomes are organized into the nucleoprotein complex, chromatin. The fundamental subunit of chromatin is the nucleosome: 150 base pairs (bps) of DNA wrapped around a "spool" of histone proteins. Chromatin structure depends...
Maintaining the balance of protein synthesis and degradation is essential for efficient proteostasis and organismal health. The 26S proteasome is a large, multisubunit proteolytic complex that functions as the primary mechanism for...
Fibroblast growth factor-1 (FGF-1) is an angiogenic factor with therapeutic potential for the treatment of ischemic disease. FGF-1 has low intrinsic thermostability and is characteristically formulated with heparin as a stabilizing agent...
Zika virus (ZIKV) is a re-emerging mosquito-borne flavivirus of significant public health concern closely related to other highly pathogenic flaviviruses, such as dengue virus (DENV) and West Nile virus (WNV). With the rise of ZIKV in...
Accurate chromosome segregation during meiosis is critical for generating genetic diversity and for producing gametes with the correct number of chromosomes. After meiotic S-phase, homologs pair, recombine, and then separate in meiosis I...
Plants are often subjected to extreme environmental conditions and must adapt rapidly. The phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA) accumulates under abiotic stress conditions, signaling transcriptional changes that trigger physiological...
Many diseases such as DiGeorge syndrome, leukemia and likely all cancers display abnormal replication timing, the temporal order in which segments of chromosomes are replicated. However, the elements that regulate normal replication...
Many proteins in the nucleus are involved in the regulation of DNA-templated events. Numerous studies have linked changes in the chromatin structure and the transcriptional program of a cell in response to a stimulus or during...
ORF45 of Kaposi's sarcoma–associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is a gamma herpesvirus-specific, immediate-early, and tegument protein. Our previous studies have revealed its crucial roles in both early and late stages of KSHV infection. In this...
Human mesenchymal stem cells are a class of adult multipotent cells that are of interest to researchers for their clinical potential. While this cell type has been intensely investigated, there is still a significant amount to be learned...
Accurate replication of DNA once and only once per cell cycle is an essential process for all living organisms. Despite many studies aimed at understanding this phenomenon, no mechanism describing where and when replication initiates in...
BACKGROUND: Kallikrein 6 (KLK6) is a newly identified member of the kallikrein family of secreted serine proteases that prior studies indicate is elevated at sites of central nervous system (CNS) inflammation and which shows regulated...
Kaposi's Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus (KSHV) is an oncogenic virus that has adapted unique mechanisms to modulate the cellular microenvironment of its human host. The pathogenesis of KSHV is intimately linked to its manipulation of...
D4Z4 is a subtelomeric macrosatellite repeat on chromosome 4q that codes for DUX4, a gene that is causal to the muscle wasting disease Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD). DUX4 expression is influenced by a number of genetic...
An attempt has been made to improve a crystal contact of human acidic fibroblast growth factor (haFGF; 140 amino acids) to control the crystal growth, because haFGF crystallizes only as a thin-plate form, yielding crystals suitable for X...
One of the events leading to a cell's commitment to a new cell cycle resulting in cell division is upregulation of the replication-dependent histone gene family. Our laboratory has previously identified a coding region activating...
Molecular photophysics and metal coordination chemistry are the two fundamental pillars that support the development of fluorescent cation indicators. In this article, we describe how Zn(II)-coordination alters various ligand-centered...
In the United States, breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women, except for skin cancers. The American Cancer Society estimates there will be 268, 600 new cases in 2019 alone. It is also the second leading cause of...
S(1)' and S(2)' Subsite Specificities of Human Plasma Kallikrein and Tissue Kallikrein 1 for the Hydrolysis of Peptides Derived from the Bradykinin Domain of Human Kininogen
The S(1)' and S(2)' subsite specificities of human tissue kallikrein 1 (KLK1) and human plasma kallikrein (HPK) were examined with the peptide series Abz-GFSPFRXSRIQ-EDDnp and Abz-GFSPFRSXRIQ-EDDnp [X=natural amino acids or S(PO(3)H(2))]...
While protease-activated receptors (PARs) are known to mediate signaling events in CNS, contributing both to normal function and pathogenesis, the endogenous activators of CNS PARs are poorly characterized. In this study, we test the...
Kallikrein-related peptidase 6 (KLK6) is a trypsin-like serine protease upregulated at sites of central nervous system (CNS) injury, including de novo expression by reactive astrocytes, yet its physiological actions are largely undefined...
Autosomal recessive primary microcephaly (MCPH, MIM 251200) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that results from a loss of neural progenitors in the embryonic neocortex. Patients with MCPH have a significantly small brain and exhibit...
A Tale of Two Drosophila Centrosome Proteins: The Regulation of Cilium Functions by Rootletin, and the Conversion of Sperm Mitochondria into Microtubule-Organizing Centers by CnnT
Using the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism, this dissertation dissects molecular and biological functions of three proteins: Rootletin (Root), testis-specific Centrosomin (CnnT) and Spermitin (Sprn). Centrosomes are...
The functionality of a protein depends on its correct folding, but newly synthesized proteins are susceptible to aberrant folding. Misfolded proteins are aggregation prone and protein aggregation are associated with many human diseases, ...
Cells sense and respond to topographical cues in their microenvironment that influence growth, development, and migration. Cell migration and outgrowth assays have been used to study cellular movement or changes in cellular morphology...
Specific mutations in the replacement histone variant H3.3 are known to drive cancers such as glioblastomas, chondroblastomas and large cell tumors of the bone primarily in children and young adults. Several recent studies have suggested...
Astrocytes are vital components in neuronal circuitry and there is increasing evidence linking the dysfunction of these cells to a number of central nervous system diseases. Studying the role of these cells in human brain function in the...
The rabbit is an important and de facto animal model in the study of ischemic disease and angiogenic therapy. Additionally, fibroblast growth factor 1 (FGF-1) is emerging as one of the most important growth factors for novel...
DNA is replicated in a defined temporal order termed the RT program. Ordered DNA replication is conserved in eukaryotes, yet its biological significance remains enigmatic. 3D genome organization as assayed by Hi-C has revealed that RT is...
Cutaneous malignant melanoma is an aggressive disease of poor prognosis. Clinical and experimental studies have provided major insight into the pathogenesis of the disease, including the functional interaction between melanoma cells and...
Tissue kallikrein KLK1 and the kallikrein-related peptidases KLK2-15 are a subfamily of serine proteases that have defined or proposed roles in a range of central nervous system (CNS) and non-CNS pathologies. To further understand their...
We previously reported the activation profiles of the human kallikrein-related peptidases (KLKs) as determined from a KLK pro-peptide fusion-protein system. That report described the activity profiles of 12 of the 15 mature KLKs versus...
The field of genomic engineering and manipulation has made great strides in recent years with the development of genome-altering techniques to alleviate disease by flexing control on an epigenetic scale. Facioscapulohumeral muscular...
Electron microscopy is an important technique for observing macromolecular structures, such as DNA and viruses, which would be too small to see under light microscopy. This type of microscopy utilizes electrons as its illumination source...
The neuroendocrine system presents a diversity of patterns in hormone secretion across a large range of temporal scales. These patterns of secretion are crucial to many aspects of animal survival and behavior. This offers a wealth of...
The human kallikrein-related peptidases (KLKs) comprise 15 members (KLK1-15) and are the single largest family of serine proteases. The KLKs are utilized, or proposed, as clinically important biomarkers and therapeutic targets of...
Nucleosome distributions are critically important in regulating access to the eukaryotic genome. Cells with different physiologies have strikingly similar nucleosome distributions. Few studies in human cells have measured genome-wide...
The Zika virus (ZIKV) presents a threat to the health of pregnant women and developing fetuses as it is associated with microcephaly. There is a current gap in the understanding of how ZIKV affects the host’s chromatin architecture....
During the past 30 years, there have been several Flaviviridae threats. Among them, Hepatatis C virus (HCV) emerged in the Western hemisphere as the previously unidentified etiological agent of non-A non-B hepatitis in transfusion...
Nanoparticle based cellular therapies hold great promise for clinical applications and medicinal use in human patients by allowing for targeted delivery of a personalized medicine payload to specific cells and tissues in a variety of...
A large body of emerging evidence indicates a functional interaction between the kallikrein-related peptidases (KLKs) and proteases of the thrombostasis axis. These interactions appear relevant for both normal health as well as...
To ensure accurate chromosome segregation, sister chromatid cohesion must be properly established at S-phase when DNA is replicated. The protein Eco1/Ctf7 is responsible for establishing this cohesion, and is the focus of this Thesis...
Identification and Characterization of Linker of Nucleoskeleton and Cytoskeleton (Linc) Complex Components in Maize (Zea mays L.) Meiosis and Development
The LINC (Linker of Nucleoskeleton to Cytoskeleton) complex is an essential multi-protein structure spanning the nuclear envelope in all eukaryotic organisms. The core of the LINC complex is comprised of SUN (Sad1/Unc-84) domain proteins...
The human tissue kallikrein (KLK) family contains 15 secreted serine proteases that are expressed in a wide range of tissues and have been implicated in different physiological functions and disease states. Of these, KLK1 has been shown...
The temporal order in which segments of the genome are duplicated is referred to as the replication timing (RT) program. RT is established in each cell cycle coincident with the repositioning and anchorage of chromosomes in early G1. In...
To improve the design of prostheses surfaces, our research group investigates how biocompatible polyelectrolyte multilayers (PEMUs) can be constructed to serve as coatings for biomedical implants, providing a versatile, inexpensive, and...
Abstract The 15 human kallikrein-related peptidases (KLKs) are clinically important biomarkers and therapeutic targets of interest in inflammation, cancer, and neurodegenerative disease. KLKs are secreted as inactive pro-forms (pro-KLKs)...
Some of the material in is restricted to members of the community. By logging in, you may be able to gain additional access to certain collections or items. If you have questions about access or logging in, please use the form on the Contact Page.
