Muscles are not islands; to function harmoniously within the body, they must communicate with one another and with the brain. But precisely which molecules are involved in this communication has proven difficult to determine, as they’re often crowded out by other, more abundant biomolecules. Now, a group of scientists has figured out a faster and easier way to identify these molecules, according to a study published Friday (January 20) in Cell Metabolism. The new method could help researchers figure out how muscles talk and zero in on proteins that could be used in medicines.
“It’s remarkably simple,” says Christopher Newgard, a Duke University Medical Center molecular physiologist who wasn’t involved in the research. “Relative to other approaches to this in the past, it almost seems impossibly simple.”
Bruce Spiegelman, a cell biologist at Harvard’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and senior author of the paper, has been working with colleagues for more ...
