Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a rare neurodegenerative disorder associated with high morbidity and early mortality. Rapidly progressive cell death of upper and lower motor neurons in the brain as well as in the spinal cord leads to loss of voluntary muscle control. Within a few years of diagnosis, patients lose the ability to move, speak, eat and breath without mechanical support. There is no cure for ALS, with current treatments merely aiming at slowing disease progression and improving symptoms...Read more

A recent Molecular Systems Biology study used exploratory spatial proteomics to investigate early changes in high-grade serous ovarian cancer, including precursor lesions in the fallopian tube. In this interview by Gustav Ceder, Dr Fabian Coscia and Dr Mihnea-Paul Dragomir discuss how the team moved from spatial proteomics discovery to tissue-based validation using an Atlas Antibodies / Human Protein Atlas antibody against DHCR7...Read more

An article in PNAS describes how hypoxia and the elimination of peroxisomes drives HCC dedifferentiation, a hallmark of malignancy and a challenge for therapy. The E3 ubiquitin ligase RNF126 is identified as a hypoxia-inducible switch that determines peroxisomal fate and links the hypoxic microenvironment to loss of hepatocyte differentiation...Read more

The multiplex tissue image of this month showcases the spatial expression pattern of acinar cell-regulating basic helix-loop-helix family member a15 (gene: BHLHA15) in exocrine glandular structures of the salivary gland...Read more

Mitochondria are well known as the energy factories of human cells, but their roles extend well beyond ATP production, with multiple links to other cellular functions continuously being discovered. As can be seen in the subcellular resource of the HPA, the positioning of mitochondria within cells is variable, both between cell types and from cell-to-cell. This arrangement is not random, but rather regulated and highly dynamic. In fact, their proximity and direct interactions with other organelles can regulate cellular processes in these compartments...Read more