Research report 2013 - Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Stuttgart site

The cellular life-death decision - how mitochondrial membrane proteins can determine cell fate

Authors
García-Sáez, Ana J.
Departments
Forschungsgruppe Biophysik von Membranen
Summary
Living organisms have a very effective method for eliminating cells that are no longer needed: programmed death. Researchers in the group of Ana García Sáez work with a protein called Bax, a key regulator of apoptosis that creates pores with a flexible diameter inside the outer mitochondrial membrane. This step inevitably triggers the final death of the cell. These insights into the role of important key enzymes in setting off apoptosis could provide useful for developing drugs that can directly influence apoptosis.

For the full text, see the German version.

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