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Mapping bilayer thickness in the ER membrane
A recent paper from the Barral lab (IBC) published in Science Advances shows that RITs (regions of increased membrane thickness) form in the ER membrane at specific locations such as the cleavage plane, forming diffusion barriers and at contact sites with other organelles (ER-TGN trans-Golgi network).
A new generation of optogenetic tools for research and medicine
The European Research Council (ERC) is providing a 10 million euros ERC Synergy Grant for an interdisciplinary, collaborative project in the structural and biophysical analysis of selected photoreceptors and their development into “OptoGPCRs”, light-controlled molecular switches with a wide range of applications in biology and medicine. Part of the team is Gebhard Schertler, double professor at the Paul Scherrer Institute and the D-BIOL of ETH Zurich.
Epithelial Inflammasomes in the Defense against Salmonella Gut Infection
A recent published review in "Current Opinion in Microbiology" by Fattinger et al from the Hardt and Sellin lab discusses epithelial inflammasomes and their crucial role in the defense against Salmonella gut infection.