Julia R Migliore
As part of their check-up at birth, babies get a prick on the heel. Among many other things, the blood tests for the function of a protein called phenylalanine hydroxylase. (Scientists sometimes call it "PAH" for convenience.) PAH is the first in a sequence of enzymes that break down excess phenylalanine. It speeds up the …
Pregnancy can be detected by looking for the glycoprotein human chorionic gonadotropin, which functions as a hormone. After an egg has been successfully fertilized, the resulting cell multiplies into a mostly hollow ball of cells called a blastula. Trophoblast cells, the cells on the exterior of the blastula, make and secrete hCG when the blastula …
Meet P4-type ATPase, better known as Flippase! Flippase lives and works in the plasma membrane. The plasma membrane is the border between the outside and the inside of the cell made from two layers of phospholipids. (We call the membrane a "phospholipid bilayer.") Phospholipids have heads that enjoy the water, but their tails hate water. …
Meet Voltage-Dependent Anionic Channel! Scientists call it by its nickname, VDAC. VDAC lives in the mitochondria (that's right: the powerhouse of the cell), specifically in the outer membrane. It's the most abundant protein in the outer mitochondrial membrane and it is present in every single mitochondrion on earth. VDAC is found in the outer mitochondrial …
Meet Myosin Binding Protein C! Myosin Binding Protein C's childhood nickname was "C protein," but these days it goes by "MyBP-C." MyBP-C is a regulatory protein in muscle. As its name implies, it binds to myosin, which is the protein responsible for producing the force in a muscle contraction (meet myosin here!). It also binds …
In honor of Plastic Free July, allow me to introduce PETase! PETase is an enzyme that eats plastic. Specifically, it dines on polyethylene terephthalate, the kind of plastic that most "disposable" water bottles are made of. from PDB 5XJH PETase was recently discovered (in 2016) in species of bacteria called Ideonella sakaiensis. It's believed that …
Have you ever been sick with strep-throat? Pneumonia? Food poisoning? A UTI? You visit your doctor and she says your illness is a bacterial infection, so she is prescribing you some antibiotics. She instructs you to take your entire round of antibiotics, all the way to the last dose, even if you start feeling better. …
It often goes by the nickname "APP" for short. APP has been extensively studied because of its association with Alzheimer's disease. Despite being studied so intensely, APP's role is complex and there is a lot that researchers just have not figured out yet. (But I will share some of what we do know!) APP lives …
At the time of writing this, I have finished "18th grade" and I still have quite a few years ahead of me before I am done with school. Typically, as an adult, when you tell someone that you are in school, they will ask two questions: What are you studying/what are you majoring in?When will …
Continue reading "What are you studying exactly? (i.e. What is Julia still doing in school? Part 1)"
If you look at any of my posts introducing a specific protein, you will always see an image like this one: 3D Model of Hemoglobin Maybe you see these images and ask, "What are all these squiggly lines you keep showing us?" These squiggly lines are three-dimensional representations of proteins. Every protein has a structure, …
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