05/2016 - Microtubule doublets are double-track railways for intraflagellar transport trains
The cilium is a large macromolecular machine that is vital for motility, signaling, and sensing in most eukaryotic cells. Its conserved core structure, the axoneme, contains nine microtubule doublets, each comprising a full A-microtubule and an incomplete B-microtubule. However, thus far, the function of this doublet geometry has not been understood. We developed a time-resolved […]
04/2016 - Autoantibody pathogenicity in a multifocal motor neuropathy induced pluripotent stem cell–derived model
Objective We investigated the pathogenicity of immunoglobulin M (IgM) anti‐GM1 antibodies in serum from patients with multifocal motor neuropathy (MMN) using human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)‐derived motor neurons (MNs). Methods iPSCs were generated from fibroblasts and differentiated into MNs. We studied the binding of IgM to MNs, their complement‐activating properties, and effects on structural […]
01/2016 - Identification of neutral tumor evolution across cancer types
Despite extraordinary efforts to profile cancer genomes, interpreting the vast amount of genomic data in the light of cancer evolution remains challenging. Here we demonstrate that neutral tumor evolution results in a power-law distribution of the mutant allele frequencies reported by next-generation sequencing of tumor bulk samples. We find that the neutral power law fits […]
12/2015 - Redox Signaling by the RNA Polymerase III TFIIB-Related Factor Brf2
TFIIB-related factor 2 (Brf2) is a member of the family of TFIIB-like core transcription factors. Brf2 recruits RNA polymerase (Pol) III to type III gene-external promoters, including the U6 spliceosomal RNA and selenocysteine tRNA genes. Found only in vertebrates, Brf2 has been linked to tumorigenesis but the underlying mechanisms remain elusive. We have solved crystal […]
10/2015 - DNAH11 Localization in the Proximal Region of Respiratory Cilia Defines Distinct Outer Dynein Arm Complexes
Primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) is a recessively inherited disease that leads to chronic respiratory disorders owing to impaired mucociliary clearance. Conventional transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is a diagnostic standard to identify ultrastructural defects in respiratory cilia but is not useful in approximately 30% of PCD cases, which have normal ciliary ultrastructure. DNAH11 mutations are a common cause […]