Signal transduction

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In biology, 'signal transduction' refers to any process by which a cell converts one kind of signal or stimulus into another. Most processes of signal transduction involve ordered sequences of biochemical reactions inside the cell, which are carried out by enzymes and activated by second messengers, resulting in a signal transduction pathway. Such processes are usually rapid, lasting on the order of milliseconds in the case of ion flux, or minutes for the activation of protein- and lipid-mediated kinase cascades, but some can take hours, and even days (as is the case with gene expression), to complete. The number of proteins and other molecules participating in the events involving signal transduction increases as the process emanates from the initial stimulus, resulting in a "signal cascade," beginning with a relatively small stimulus that elicits a large response. This is referred to as amplification of the signal.

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News tagged with signaling pathway

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New understanding of how to prevent destruction of a tumor suppressor

New understanding of how to prevent destruction of a tumor suppressor

Medicine & Health / Cancer

created Dec 07, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Researchers from the Indiana University School of Medicine and colleagues at the University of Texas Southwestern and Case Western University have determined how the protein Mdm2, which is elevated in late-stage ...


Study Unravels Detail of 'Most Important' Cellular Signal

Medicine & Health / Research

created Dec 03, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new study provides crucial details that promise to help researchers better understand, and perhaps fine-tune with drugs, one of the most important signaling mechanisms in human cells, according to a study ...


UT Southwestern researchers use drug-radiation combo to eradicate lung cancer

Researchers use drug-radiation combo to eradicate lung cancer

Medicine & Health / Cancer

created Oct 29, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 0

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have eliminated non-small cell lung (NSCL) cancer in mice by using an investigative drug called BEZ235 in combination with low-dose radiation.


Crosstalk between critical cell-signaling pathways holds clues to tumor invasion and metastasis

Medicine & Health / Cancer

created Nov 25, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Two signaling pathways essential to normal human development - the Wnt/Wingless (Wnt) and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) pathways - interact in ways that can promote tumor cell invasion and metastasis, researchers ...


'Cross-talk' mechanism contributes to colorectal cancer

Medicine & Health / Cancer

created Nov 13, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health have identified a molecular mechanism that allows two powerful signaling pathways to interact and begin a process leading to colorectal ...


Wistar researchers show targeting 'normal' cells in tumors slows growth

Medicine & Health / Cancer

created Nov 16, 2009 | popularity 1 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Targeting the normal cells that surround cancer cells within and around a tumor is a strategy that could greatly increase the effectiveness of traditional anti-cancer treatments, say researchers at The Wistar Institute.


Research shows why low vitamin D raises heart disease risks in diabetics

Research shows why low vitamin D raises heart disease risks in diabetics

Medicine & Health / Diseases

created Aug 22, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 0

Low levels of vitamin D are known to nearly double the risk of cardiovascular disease in patients with diabetes, and researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis now think they know ...


Plants on Steroids: Key Missing Link Discovered

Biology / Biotechnology

created Sep 08, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the Carnegie Institution's Department of Plant Biology have discovered a key missing link in the so-called signaling pathway for plant steroid hormones (brassinosteroids). Many important signaling ...


Caltech scientists get detailed glimpse of chemoreceptor architecture in bacterial cells

Scientists get detailed glimpse of chemoreceptor architecture in bacterial cells

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Sep 24, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Using state-of-the-art electron microscopy techniques, a team led by researchers from Caltech has for the first time visualized and described the precise arrangement of chemoreceptors—the receptors that sense ...


Figuring out the heads or tails decision in regeneration

Medicine & Health / Research

created Sep 14, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Amputations trigger a molecular response that determines if a head or tail will be regrown in planaria, a flatworm commonly studied for its regenerative capabilities. Until now, no molecular connection between wounding and ...


Cannibalistic cells may help prevent infections, UT Southwestern researchers report

Cannibalistic cells may help prevent infections

Medicine & Health / Research

created Aug 03, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Infectious-disease specialists at UT Southwestern Medical Center have demonstrated that a cannibalistic process in cells plays a key role in limiting Salmonella infection.


What makes stem cells tick?

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Aug 06, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Investigators at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham) and The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have made the first comparative, large-scale phosphoproteomic analysis of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) ...


Why the thumb of the right hand is on the left hand side

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created May 22, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (13) | comments 0

It is the concentration of a few signaling molecules that determines the fate of individual cells during the early development of organisms. In the renowned journal Current Biology, a team of molecular biologists led by Pia ...


Fate in fly sensory organ precursor cells could explain human immune disorder

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Jun 21, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

(June 21, 2009) - Notch signaling helps determine the fate of a number of different cell types in a variety of organisms, including humans. In an article that appears in the current issue of Nature Cell Biology, researchers at Bay ...


Capillary formation’s mechanical determinants: One growth factor can have many effects

Capillary formation’s mechanical determinants: One growth factor can have many effects

Medicine & Health / Research

created Mar 09, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Harvard researchers have established a link between the growth of blood vessels and the mechanical stresses caused by the environment within which the vessels grow, a new understanding that ...