Deimination restores inner retinal visual function in murine demyelinating disease

Sanjoy Bhattarcharya and Vittorio Porciatti of the University of Miami discuss the role of deimination, a post-translational protein modification, in retinal function. Highlights:

• Demyelinating diseases, including multiple sclerosis, are frequently accompanied by vision loss.
• Deimination is a protein modification that is impaired in the retinas of patients with demyelinating disease.
• Using a rat model of demyelinating disease, the researchers demonstrated that loss of deimination impaired retinal function.
• Restoration of deimination restored neurite outgrowth and retinal function, suggesting that deimination could be a therapeutic target.

Eugene Braunwald

Dr. Eugene Braunwald has often been called the father of modern cardiology. Science Watch has listed Dr. Braunwald as the most frequently cited author in cardiology. Beyond numerous awards and 20 honorary degrees, he was the first cardiologist elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Nobel Prize winners in medicine have named Braunwald as the person who has contributed the most to cardiology in recent years. He speaks today about his trajectory from Nazi-occupied Austria through his immigrant struggle in New York City to land as the Chairman of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Thomas Starzl

Today in the United States, more than 6,000 people a year receive a liver transplant, and since liver transplants have begun, over 200,000 patients have received this therapy. They survive today due to the efforts of a legendary scientist and surgeon: Thomas Starzl of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. He performed the first successful liver transplant in 1967 and refined the use of immunosuppressive drugs such that patients could tolerate their grafts — some for decades. With Starzl’s efforts over the last 50 years, thousands of patients with end-stage liver disease have been able to live long and active lives.

Francis Collins

After Francis Collins received his PhD in Physical Chemistry at Yale University and his medical degree at the University of North Carolina, he zeroed in on genetics. He is noted for his landmark discoveries of disease genes and later his leadership of the Human Genome Project, which culminated in April 2003 with the completion of a finished sequence of the human genome. Since August 2009, Collins has served as the director of the NIH, the largest supporter of biomedical research in the world.

PSD-95 expression controls L-DOPA dyskinesia through dopamine D1 receptor trafficking

Erwan Bezard and Laurent Groc of the University of Bordeaux discuss the effects of the post-synaptic density protein PSD-95 on the development of levodopa-induced dyskinesia. Highlights:

• L-DOPA-induced dyskinesia (LID) is a major side effect of dopamine replacement therapy for Parkinson’s disease.
• LID is associated with changes in D1 dopamine receptor (D1R) interactions at the striatal synapses.
• Using rat and macaque models, Bezard, Groc, and colleagues demonstrated that the synaptic density protein PSD-95 alters the trafficking of D1R to the synapse.
• Loss of PSD-95 in the striatum reduces the development and severity of LID.