Page 6 - Scientific Library

Bioactive small molecules facilitate numerous types of Life Science research approaches (enzyme substrates, activators and inhibitors, cell signaling modulator, cell culture...). Accessing reasonably priced,

Celastrol is a biologically active substance initially described in the traditional Chinese medicine. Celastrol (or (9ß,13α,14ß,20α)-3-Hydroxy-9,13-dimethyl-2-oxo-24,25,26-trinoroleana-1(10),3,5,7-tetraen-29-oic

Deak AT et al. decipher the mechanisms by which mitochondria contribute to Ca2+ intracellular signaling. In their recent paper (1), they show that mitochondrial "Ca2+ buffering" close to the Endoplasmic Reticulum predominately shapes cytosolic Ca2+ micro-domains. To perform their studies, the authors used stable knock-down (KD) HeLa cellular models optimized for loss-of-function analysis.

Two proteins known to be essential for mitochondrial Ca2+ uptake (Mitochondrial Calcium Uniporter (MCU) or Uncoupling Protein 2 (UCP2)) have thus been stably silenced with sh-RNA engineered HeLa cell lines (MCU-KD and UCP2-KD HeLa cell lines). This shRNA technology has already been used in Drug Discovery approaches (ex. PARP inhibitors efficiency by Synthetic Lethality in Hypoxic conditions). (2)

Finally, the authors present two diagrams illustrating the role of mitochondrial Ca2+ uptake for Stromal Interacting Molecule 1 (STIM1) oligomerization and Store-Operated Ca2+ Entry (SOCE) maintainance in their HeLa cellular models.

Want to know more?

(1) Deak AT et al. "Inositol-1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP3)-mediated STIM1 oligomerization requires intact mitochondrial Ca2+ uptake" (2014) J Cell Sci. 2014 May 7. DOI: 10.1242/?jcs.149807

(2) Mennesson

Following on from my previous post on biosimilars and biotherapeutics (or biologics), let's now take a look at some of the specific

As cell biologist, when working in labs I have in the past witnessed several “X-files” in a flask of cells along my way: all cells of an established cell line are supposed to have the same genetic background

Angiogenesis is the growth process of new blood vessels from pre-existing one's. It's a normal physiological process, observed during embryonic development. But it's also a pathological process, essentially

Following on from my previous post  in which I started to introduce a series of techniques to investigate the impact of miRNA expression on cell fate,

In this third post of the miRNA-related series, let's take a look at miRNA overexpression.

miRNA mimics

Short RNAs are very prone to enzymatic degradation. Novel chemical technologies now

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Velcade (Bortezomib) for the retreatment of adult patients with Multiple Myeloma who had previously responded to Velcade therapy and relapsed at

Following on in our series on microRNAs (miRNA - Keys to open cell biology’s secret chamber)

Leading on from my previous posts (see below) exploring microRNA detection, overexpression and inhibition, this time, let's spend a moment on target detection.

miTarget databases

The cellular and physiological effects resulting from hypoxia-dependent networks have been clearly shown to impact a number of human pathological states, including ischemic disease, diabetes, pulmonary