burnham institute for medical research

(Burnham Institute) Investigators at Burnham Institute for Medical Research, UBC and UCSD have found that normal synaptic activity in nerve cells protects the brain from the misfolded proteins associated with Huntington's disease.

They also found that the drug Memantine, which is approved to treat Alzheimer's disease, successfully treated Huntington's disease in a mouse model by preserving normal synaptic electrical activity and suppressing excessive extrasynaptic electrical activity.

(Burnham Institute) Investigators at Burnham Institute for Medical Research have identified novel cleavage sites for the enzyme caspase-3 (an enzyme that proteolytically cleaves target proteins).

Using an advanced proteomic technique called N-terminomics, Guy Salvesen, Ph.D., professor and director of the Apoptosis and Cell Death Research program of Burnham's NCI-designated Cancer Center, and colleagues determined the cleavage sites on target proteins and found, contrary to previous understanding, that caspase-3 targets a-helices as well as unstructured loops.

(Burnham Institute) Researchers at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research have discovered that reactive oxygen species, such as superoxide and hydrogen peroxide, play a key role in forming invadopodia, cellular protrusions implicated in cancer cell migration and tumor metastasis.

(Burnham Institute) Investigators at Burnham Institute for Medical Research and the University of Connecticut Health Center have gained new understanding of the role hyaluronic acid plays in skeletal growth, chondrocyte maturation and joint formation in developing limbs.

(Burnham Institute) Gary Chiang, Ph.D., and colleagues at Burnham Institute for Medical Research have elucidated how the stability of the REDD1 protein is regulated.

The REDD1 protein is a critical inhibitor of the mTOR signaling pathway, which controls cell growth and proliferation.

(Burnham Institute) Scientists at Burnham Institute for Medical Research have found that the Caspase-8 protein, long known to play a major role in promoting programmed cell death (apoptosis), helps relay signals that can cause cancer cells to proliferate, migrate and invade surrounding tissues.