A network of proteins underlying the plasma membrane keeps epithelial cells in shape and maintains their orderly hexagonal packing in the mouse lens, say Nowak et al. The study will appear in the ...

Spectrin proteins form a flexible, elastic scaffold beneath the plasma membrane, conferring mechanical stability and organising membrane domains. Comprised of α and β subunits assembled into ...

Spectrin and ankyrin, two essential proteins, shape and fortify cell membranes. New findings on variations in spectrin's ability to bind to membranes have implications for new biomedical molecular ...

Spinocerebellar ataxias (SCAs) are a group of inherited neurodegenerative diseases that damage the spine and the cerebellum that sits just above it. The neuronal degeneration causes ataxia, or ...

Red blood cells must be flexible to squeeze through tiny capillaries to deliver oxygen. Chemists have now discovered the secret of this flexibility: a 2-D triangular mesh, like a geodesic dome, ...

Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine and colleagues have demonstrated that variants in the SPTBN1 gene can alter neuronal architecture, dramatically ...

Abraham Lincoln may have suffered from a genetic disorder that literally shattered his nerves, a new study on worms suggests. Many of the president's descendants have a gene mutation that affects the ...

Spectrin and ankyrin are two essential proteins acting like bricks and mortar to shape and fortify cell membranes. But distinguishing which protein is the brick and which is the mortar has turned out ...

A network of proteins underlying the plasma membrane keeps epithelial cells in shape and maintains their orderly hexagonal packing in the mouse lens, say Nowak et al. The study will appear in the ...