Warren symposium follows legacy of geneticist giant

If we want to understand how the brain creates memories, and how genetic disorders distort the brain’s machinery, then the fragile X gene is an ideal place to start. That’s why the Stephen T. Warren Memorial Symposium, taking place November 28-29 at Emory, will be a significant event for those interested in neuroscience and genetics. Stephen T. Warren, 1953-2021 Warren, the founding chair of Emory’s Department of Human Genetics, led an international team that discovered Read more

Mutations in V-ATPase proton pump implicated in epilepsy syndrome

Why and how disrupting V-ATPase function leads to epilepsy, researchers are just starting to figure Read more

Tracing the start of COVID-19 in GA

At a time when COVID-19 appears to be receding in much of Georgia, it’s worth revisiting the start of the pandemic in early 2020. Emory virologist Anne Piantadosi and colleagues have a paper in Viral Evolution on the earliest SARS-CoV-2 genetic sequences detected in Georgia. Analyzing relationships between those virus sequences and samples from other states and countries can give us an idea about where the first COVID-19 infections in Georgia came from. We can draw Read more
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rods and rings

What are rods and rings?

This image of mouse embryonic fibroblasts comes from Cara Schiavon, a graduate student in Rick Kahn’s lab in the Department of Biochemistry. It was impressive enough to capture interest from Emory Medicine‘s graphics designer Peta Westmaas. The light green shapes are “Rods and Rings,” structures that were identified just a few years ago by scientists studying how cells respond to antiviral drugs, such as those used against hepatitis C.

The rod and ring structures appear to contain enzymes that cells use for synthesizing DNA building blocks. Patients treated with some antiviral drugs develop antibodies against these enzymes.

The turquoise color represents microtubules, components of cells’ internal skeletons. The orange color shows DNA within nuclei. The spots in the nuclei are areas where DNA is more compact. The overall image is a “z-stack projection” acquired using the Olympus FV1000 confocal microscope in Emory’s Integrated Cellular Imaging Core.

Posted on April 2, 2018 by Quinn Eastman in Uncategorized Leave a comment