Cell’s linchpin protein found
Mitochondria are battery-pack organelles, or cell units with specific functions, that fuel the energy of almost every living cell, and they have an insatiable appetite for calcium. Whether in a dish or a living organism, the mitochondria of most organisms eagerly absorb this chemical compound. Because calcium levels link to many essential biological processes — not to mention conditions such as neurological disease and diabetes — scientists have been working for half a century to identify the molecular pathway that enables these processes. After decades of failed efforts that relied on classic biochemistry and membrane protein purification, Vamsi Mootha, a Harvard Medical School (HMS) associate professor of systems biology, and his colleagues have discovered, through a combination of digital database mining and laboratory assays, the linchpin protein that drives mitochondria’s calcium machinery. “This channel has been studied extensively using physiology and biophysics, yet its molecular identity has remained elusive,” said Mootha, who...