Neuroscience

G-protein coupled signaling pathways are organized into multi-protein complexes called signalosomes that are located within and on cellular membranes. We describe the use of silica nanoparticles coated with a unilamellar phospholipid bilayer (lipobeads) to reconstitute the activated photoreceptor G-protein α-subunit (Gtα*) with its

The functional performance of a cell depends on how macromolecules, in particular proteins, come together in a precise orientation, how they assemble into protein complexes and interact with each other. In order to study protein-protein interactions at a molecular level, a variety of methods to investigate these binding processes yield affinity

Calcium ions trigger many cellular events, including the release of neurotransmitters at the synaptic terminal and excitotoxic cell death. Recently, we have discovered that a transient increase in the level of cytoplasmic Ca2+ triggers the exposure of phosphatidylserine (PS) on the surfaces of necrotic cells in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans.

Computational neuroscience aims to model, reproduce, and predict network dynamics for different neuronal ensembles by distilling knowledge derived from electrophysiological and morphological evidence. However, analyses and simulations often remain critically limited by the sparsity of direct experimental constraints on essential parameters, such

Protein N-glycosylation plays a vital role in diverse cellular processes, and dysregulated N-glycosylation is implicated in a variety of human diseases including neurodegenerative disorders and cancer. With recent advances in high-resolution mass spectrometry-based glycoproteomics technologies enabling large-scale N-glycoproteome profiling of

Over the last decade, lipids have emerged as possessing an ever-increasing number of key functions, especially in membrane trafficking. For instance, phosphatidic acid (PA) has been proposed to play a critical role in different steps along the secretory pathway or during phagocytosis. To further investigate in detail the precise nature of PA