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Top viewed research performed by San Antonio Bioscience Organizations


Transposable elements, known colloquially as ?jumping genes,? constitute approximately 45% of the humangenome. Cells utilize epigenetic defenses to limit transposable element jumping, including formation of silencingheterochromatin and generation of piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs), small RNAs that facilitate clearance oftransposable element transcripts. Transposable element activation has recently been identified as a keymediator of neuronal death in tauopathies, a group of neurodegenerative disorders that are pathologicallydefined by deposits of tau protein in the brain.

UT Health San Antonio
Frost, Susan Elizabeth

The proposed research investigates novel molecular targets and processes that promise to minimize brain damage after cerebral ischemic stroke (CIS) and traumatic brain injury (TBI). Current therapeutic strategies to combat acute brain injuries have been largely unsuccessful. We discovered that the Ca2+ dependent phosphatase calcineurin (CN) can bind to PERK, a stress sensor in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), increases its auto-phosphorylation and enhance a cellular process called the Unfolded Protein Response (UPR).

UT Health San Antonio
Lechleiter, James D