Access
To read this story in full you will need to login or make a payment (see right).
News and Views
Nature 421, 587-590 (6 February 2003) | doi:10.1038/421587a
Open Innovation Challenges
-
Novel Approaches to Protecting Maize from Insect Damage
The Seeker is looking for novel approaches to protecting maize from insect damage. This Challenge re...
-
Single-cell Analysis Platform
This Challenge is looking for novel approaches to analyzing changes at a single-cell level. This is...
- More Challenges
- Powered by:
nature jobs
Senior Executive- Finance Corporate Office
- Rhydburg Pharmaceuticals
- Selaqui-Dehradun India
Full-Professor of Heart and Thoracic Surgery (W3) (f / m)
- Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena
- Jena Germany
Human genetics: Lost anchors cost lives
Stanley Nattel
Abstract
Mutations in ion-transport proteins can destabilize the electrical activity of the heart, causing sudden death. It now seems that mutations in a protein that anchors ion transporters to cell membranes can have the same effect.
Many excitable tissues — including the heart, brain and nervous system — are controlled by the flow of electrical currents across cell membranes. The heart, for instance, beats about 100,000 times a day, with each beat requiring an appropriate and coordinated pattern of muscular contraction that is triggered by finely tuned, rhythmic electrical activity.
To read this story in full you will need to login or make a payment (see right).
