Harvard Medical School

June 19, 2006

In Print

Photo by Graham Ramsay

From Focus:
Agent Stops Cellular Traffic at Point of Entry
The protein dynamin is thought to play an important role in the formation of clathrin-coated pits, a type of cargo-carrying vesicle in the cell. Dynamin comes in at the end of the process and pinches off the completed vesicle from the cell membrane. Yet Tomas Kirchhausen and his colleagues report that dynamin seems to play a dual role: not only does it detach the completed vesicle, but it also comes to play earlier in the process, at the point of early pit formation. The researchers made their discovery by identifying a molecule, dynasore, that blocks dynamin activity. This traffic-stopper may serve as a research tool for tracing molecular pathways, including those of infectious agents such as flu virus and cholera toxin.

Lab Works

A multimedia site featuring Harvard Medical research.

StudenTalk

Personal takes on issues inside and outside the classroom.

Spotlight

Photo by Graham Ramsay

Unpacking Bias, Shoring Up Cultural Sensitivity
In this ninth vignette on the revised medical curriculum, Augustus White describes efforts to weave cultural competency training throughout medical education.

Student Scene

Photo by Graham Ramsay

Hantavirus: Bountiful Season Brings Deadly Harvest
From the Navajo Reservation in Arizona, Ellen Rothman describes the desert blooming from an unusually wet season and the viral infection that follows.