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.
Maternal positional information in the fly embryo can be read rapidly in spite of the gene-expression bottleneck and general examples of regulatory architectures that combine speed and accuracy are provided.
A membrane-associated, supramolecular protein complex with dynamically changing components, the central supramolecular activation cluster, regulates the generation of the T cell effector cytokine IL-2 depending on its composition.
Spontaneous growth arrest of transformed melanocytes (resulting in benign “moles”) does not result from cell-autonomous oncogene-induced senescence, but can be explained by collective mechanisms used in normal tissue size control.
Ketamine, an NMDA receptor antagonist and experimental model for schizophrenia, produces decision-making deficits in monkeys, which are predicted by a lowering of cortical excitation-inhibition balance in a spiking circuit model.
Administration of dopamine and opioid receptor antagonists resulted in reduced reward anticipation (effort and increased negative facial reactions), but only administration of opioid antagonists resulted in reduced liking (facial reactions).
