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The conversion of chemical to electrical signals by the AMPA receptors is the key step by which these proteins control cognitive and motor responses. Here, we have used luminescence resonance energy transfer (LRET) to gain insight into the conformational changes induced by glutamate binding in the agonist-binding domain in functional AMPA receptors expressed in oocytes and HEK-293 cells. The LRET-based distances indicate that the interface between the upper lobes of the agonist-binding domain within a dimer is in a decoupled state in the unligated Apo state of the receptor. Agonist binding results in the formation of the dimer interface in the open-channel form of the receptor. In the continued presence of glutamate when the receptor is primarily in the desensitized state, the dimer interface is decoupled, confirming that the decoupling of the dimer interface leads to channel closure. The LRET distances also indicate that the dimer interface is preformed before activation in the L484Y mutation and also is formed in the antagonist (ZK200775)-bound form of the AMPA receptor. These results suggests that, although the preformation of the interface is not sufficient to drive channel activation, it could play a role in the energetics of activation and hence modulation of the receptor by auxiliary proteins or small molecules. aliosteric mechanism | glutamate receptors | luminescence resonance energy transfer | structure-function www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.0911854107

Carl Linnaeus would be impressed. In an effort to establish a new master key for identifying species, researchers have constructed a classification system that uses DNA sequences as taxonomic labels. [...]

The high-content cell biology market is expected to have a compound annual growth rate of 30% during the next two years. According to a strategic sector review conducted by TSG [...]

According to a study released by Frost & Sullivan (London, UK), titled World RNAi Markets: Current and Future Outlook, the RNA interference (RNAi) market is projected to have a compound [...]

Scientific literature once accessible only through journal subscriptions may soon just be a click away. The National Institutes of Health (NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA) has announced an 'open access' policy, [...]

Responding to widespread criticism of its handling of drug safety questions, the FDA (Rockville, MD, USA) has announced plans to create an independent drug safety board. The Drug Safety Oversight [...]

Understanding how proteins make the associations within cells that enable them to perform their various functions currently is one of the biggest unanswered questions in the life sciences. A recent [...]

People with an above-average number of copies of an immune-response gene are less likely to acquire HIV and of progressing to full-blown AIDS once infected, according to a study conducted [...]

According to a study released by Drug & Market Development (Westborough, MA, USA), titled High-density Multiplexed Assays, the market for this technology will double its value in the next five [...]

Since the inception of the Human Genome Project, the healthcare and life science industries have been buzzing with the promise of personalized medicine--innovative therapy that matches drugs to an individual's [...]

The most detrimental effects of cigarette smoking--long believed to appear after many years and hundreds of cigarettes--are more immediate than previously thought. According to a recent study by researchers at [...]

Researchers at the University of California, Irvine, have identified a brain protein responsible for regulating sleep and anxiety--a discovery that could lead to a new class of drugs for treating [...]

A team of researchers at The Cleveland Clinic (Cleveland, OH, USA) has identified the first gene mutation confirmed to cause heart attacks. According to the researchers, the presence of a [...]

Unable to keep track of your car keys or summon a word on the tip of your tongue? The idea of slowly losing pieces of one's memory, logic or reason [...]

Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed malignancy among women, afflicting one in eight in the United States, according to The National Cancer Institute (Bethesda, MD, USA). The efficacy of [...]

Researchers at the National Jewish Medical and Research Center (NJMRC, Denver, CO, USA) have identified a protein that shows promise as a cancer treatment. The protein, fibulin-5, inhibits the formation [...]

According to a market analysis report from Frost & Sullivan (New York, NY, USA), titled Strategic Analysis of the World Combinatorial Chemistry Markets, the combinatorial chemistry market is set to [...]

Roche (Basel, Switzerland) and deCODE Genetics (Reykjavik, Iceland) have initiated a strategic alliance to develop and commercialize phosphodiestrase (PDE4) inhibitors for the prevention and treatment of vascular disease, including stroke. [...]

In other NimbleGen news, the company has renamed Chemogenix (Walkdraiburg, Germany), its chemistry research and development subsidiary, to NimbleGen Systems. According to the company, the change was made to bring [...]

Despite persistent questions about data standards, ethics and intellectual property, gene databanks will play a key role in the future of healthcare, and participants at the recent 2004 Worldwide Biobank [...]

Agilent Technologies (Palo Alto, CA, USA) and drug discovery company ExonHit Therapeutics SA (Paris, France) have partnered to develop an array technology to monitor the expression of splice variants. Under [...]

Wyatt (Santa Barbara, CA, USA) has acquired all the assets of Proterion Corporation (Piscataway, NJ, USA), supplier of computer-controlled life sciences instrumentation. The acquisition adds Proterion's protein crystallization tools to [...]

Galileo Genomics (Quebec, Canada) has changed its name to Genizon BioSciences. According to the company, the new name will reflect an expanded scope of capabilities to include downstream pathway analysis [...]

In other Invitrogen news, the company is set to acquire reagent supplier, Bio Asia. Based in Shanghai, Bio Asia provides sequencing reagents and custom R&D services. The acquisition coincides with [...]

Althea Technologies (San Diego, CA, USA), a service provider in gene expression analysis, and bioinformatics firm Natural Selection (La Jolla, CA, USA) have entered into a strategic alliance to provide [...]

Nanostream Inc. (Pasadena, CA, USA) has signed a distribution agreement with CTC Laboratory Systems Corp. (Tokyo, Japan), a provider of technology solutions for life sciences companies. Under the agreement, CTC [...]

Sigma-Aldrich (St. Louis, MO, USA) has signed an agreement with Procognia (Maidenhead, England, UK) to market Procognia's functional human protein arrays. The first array will contain wild-type p53 and its [...]

IBM (White Plains, NY USA) and The Karolinska Institute (Stockholm, Sweden) have announced plans to build a biobank in Sweden. The Karolinska Institute Biobank will aim to integrate research projects, [...]

Advanced X-ray diffraction solutions provider, Bruker AXS Inc. (Madison, WI, USA) has partnered with Albany NanoTech (Albany, NY, USA), a global center for nanotechnology R&D at the University at Albany, [...]

Invitrogen (Carlsbad, CA, USA) has announced a collaboration with The Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN, USA) for the development of diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for cancer and general laboratory medicine. Under [...]

NimbleGen Systems (Madison, WI, USA) has announced the availability of ENCODE microarrays, which contain more than 384,000 unique 50-mer probes selected from 30 megabases of human sequence data specified by [...]

Pall Corporation (East Hills, NY, USA) has acquired BioSepra, the process proteomics division of Ciphergen Biosystems Inc. (Fremont, CA, USA). BioSepra, which manufactures chromatography sorbents for protein purification, will be [...]

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA, Washington, DC, USA) has launched a new Web site that provides information and interactive features on the impact and future of pharmaceutical [...]

Biotechnology company Rigel Pharmaceuticals (South San Francisco, CA, USA) has entered into a collaboration with Merck (Whitehouse Station, NJ, USA) to find treatments for cancer and, potentially, other diseases. Under [...]

The rising cost of innovative drug development--currently pegged at $897 million per drug by the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development (Boston, MA, USA)--has many companies entering into [...]