The Notch signaling pathway has a central role in the development of the nervous system, and also in the establishment of networks of connections in the adult brain
The eye produces a protein that inhibits the growth of blood vessels in the deep retina, which includes the photoreceptor layer, and disruption of this process can lead to blindness.
In this episode we hear about the cocktail party effect, the role of psuedogene RNA in the immune response, the genetic origins of a common form of blindness, the flu vaccine, and the origins of schistosomiasis.
Skin cells from a patient with retinitis pigmentosa have been used to generate induced pluripotent stem cells, which could potentially form the basis of new treatments for this disease.
A newly characterized calcium-activated chloride channel has been implicated in the immune system of Drosophila, shedding light on an enigmatic family of transmembrane proteins that are ubiquitous in nature.
Mutations that reduce the functioning of rab7 may underlie the degeneration of sensory and motor nerves in Charcot-Marie-Tooth 2B disease, which suggests increasing endolysosomal function as a therapy.
