SYSTEMS
BIOLOGY: Ribosomes: More Special than You Think
Ribosomes, organelles that create proteins from messenger RNA templates, have
always been considered interchangeable. But a study in the Nov. 2 Cell, led
by Suzanne Komili (left) in the labs of Pamela Silver (right) and Fritz Roth
(front), provides evidence in yeast that ribosomes have some specialization.
This new idea arises from investigating yeast’s many duplicated genes that
encode ribosomal proteins. Thought to be redundant, the proteins turn out to
have different roles. The authors suggest that ribosomes, depending on which
components they carry, may process proteins differently. Also pictured is co-author
Natalie Farny.
GENOMICS:
Genetic Risk Areas Detected for Rheumatoid Arthritis
After years of producing dubious results, a new generation of genetic
studies has doubled the short list of common gene variations that contribute
to the risk of rheumatoid arthritis. Confidence in the findings comes
from rigorous statistics and replication in samples from patients in
three countries. Robert Plenge, the first author on three such studies,
one in Nature Genetics and two in The New England Journal
of Medicine, conducted his research in collaboration with scientists
in New York and Sweden and used additional public data from two other
projects in Boston and Britain.
NEUROLOGY:
Small Molecule Halts Neurodegeneration in Mouse Model of Huntington’s
There is currently no known cure for Huntington’s disease, a rare,
inherited neurodegenerative disorder caused by mutation in the gene for
the huntingtin protein. But Steven Hersch (right) and colleagues including
(from left) Jonathan Fox, Vanita Chopra, and Aleksey Kazantsev may have
a lead. They found that C2-8, a novel compound that limits huntingtin aggregation
in neurons, penetrates the blood–brain barrier, is well tolerated,
and improves symptoms in a mouse model of the disease. The compound, or
similar structural analogs, could soon be tested in humans. The findings
are reported in the Oct. 16 Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences.
Copyright 2007 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College