skin cells

Andrew Yoo, Robert Gereau and Michael Bruchas have been awarded grants from the National Institues of Health Common Fund to pursue visionary research that has the potential to transform science and improve human health.

A fluroescent-tagged antibody bearing silver and gold particles reveals I and L bradykinin receptors lit in a ghostly green glow on the surfact of cultured human cellsPreliminary research suggests it may someday be possible to diagnose and forecast risk for Alzheimer’s disease using skin cells, thanks to a small protein, or peptide, that few previously associated with the disease. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have discovered that skin cells from people with inherited forms of Alzheimer’s disease respond to the peptide by triggering Alzheimer’s-like changes, but skin cells from healthy individuals do not. They say the findings need to be explored further in cases of non-inherited Alzheimer’s disease, but the results could eventually lead to a way of determining an individual’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s before clinical symptoms arise.