Biochemists discover new insights into what may go awry in brains of people with Alzheimer ’s

In this study, Warmack produced crystals, both the normal and kinked types, in 15 of beta amyloid ’s amino acids. She used a modified type of cryo-electron microscopy to analyze the crystals. Cryo-electron microscopy, whose development won its creators the 2017 Nobel Prize in chemistry, enables scientists to see large biomolecules in extraordinary detail. Professor Tamir Gonen pioneered the mo dified microscopy, called microcrystal electron diffraction, which enables scientists to study biomolecules of any size.Eisenberg is UCLA ’s Paul D. Boyer Professor of Molecular Biology and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. Other researchers are co-author Gonen, a professor of biological chemistry and physiology at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator; and Jose Rod riguez, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry who holds the Howard Reiss Career Development Chair.The research was funded by the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the UCLA Longevity Center ’s Elizabeth and Thomas Plott Chair in Gerontology, which Clarke held for five years.
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news