University of Texas Southwestern Labs: Where Breakthroughs Happen

– The STING protein, known for helping cells fight viral infections by generating inflammation, also appears to function as a quality control sensor for organelles that serve as cellular waste disposal systems, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers found. Their study, published in Molecular Cell, helps explain critical features of diseases called lysosomal storage disorders and could eventually lead to new treatments for these and other neurodegenerative diseases.

Much like human beings, songbirds learn how to vocalize from their parents. Males imitate songs from their fathers and then sing to attract mates. Although the circuits that generate human speech are more complicated to decipher, the brains of songbirds offer a viable model for better understanding how humans learn to speak and what goes wrong in communication disorders such as autism.

Using a novel method that gives a readout of which proteins are in specific locations within cells, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have identified a protein that plays a key role in cell adhesion and movement.

A preclinical model developed at UT Southwestern Medical Center that recapitulates a rare infant-onset form of diabetes suggests the condition stems from gradual damage to the pancreas through misregulation of a molecular pathway called the unfolded protein response (UPR).

Malaria, responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths each year worldwide, is caused by a parasite transmitted through the salivary glands of female Anopheles mosquitoes. Understanding the biology of these tissues is critical to developing new treatments for the disease, found mostly in tropical countries.