Untangling the "Swiss Army Knife" of the Cell
July 3, 2019
You've heard that the mitochondria are the powerhouses of a cell, but researchers from BYU and the University of Utah want to introduce you to Cdc48 – the swiss army knife of a cell.
Cdc48 is a molecular machine that breaks down depleted proteins by threading them together in a tangled web. But when Cdc48 mutates, it can cause serious problems and has been linked to different cancers and Alzheimer's disease.
The more scientists understand Cdc48, the better they can develop treatments for those serious diseases. A new study from the researchers at the rival universities, published this week in Science, was able to flash freeze and dissect Cdc48 in the middle of its threading process.
