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Commandeering Cellular Machinery
Georgia Tech graduate student Priyanka Rohatgi tests whether the nuclear receptors engineered in yeast cells have the same function in mammalian cells.
Researchers have learned how to commandeer the complex machinery that cells use to recognize and respond to such important molecules as steroid hormones, thyroid hormones and vitamin D. The development could provide a foundation for a new family of biologically based mechanisms able to detect common drugs, chemical weapons and other small molecules. By allowing manipulation of this cellular protein machinery--known as nuclear receptors--the technique could also lead to new methods for producing enzymes and important pharmaceutical compounds. The work was sponsored by the Research Corporation, the Seaver Foundation and the National Science Foundation.
To learn more, see the Oct. 4, 2004, Georgia Tech Research News story, "Commandeering Cellular Machinery: Researchers Manipulate Recognition Mechanism to Detect Small Molecules." (Date of Image: October 2004)
Credit: Photo by Gary Meek; courtesy Georgia Tech
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