HOUSTON -- (Jan. 15, 2015) - Alteration of lipid metabolism in brain cells promotes the formation of lipid droplets that presage the loss of neurons, said researchers from Baylor College of Medicine and the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children's Hospital in a report that appears online in the journal Cell. Neuroscience graduate student Lucy Liu, and Dr. Hugo Bellen, professor of molecular and human genetics, neuroscience, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and director of the Graduate Program in Developmental Biology at Baylor connected the presence of lipid droplet accumulation in the glia of specific mutants as a harbinger of neurodegeneration. Fruit fly genetics The Bellen lab uses fruit fly mutants of evolutionarily conserved genes that lead to neurodegeneration in human patients to dissect the molecular mechanisms that underlie the demise of neurons. The fruit flies carry mutations in genes that have human homologs that cause Leigh syndrome, Charcot-Marie-Tooth type 2A2 and ARSAL (autosomal recessive spastic ataxia with leukoencephalopathy). All of these mutations affect the function of the mitochondria, the powerhouse of the cell. Lipid droplets and energy Lipid droplets are organelles that serve as energy storage depots. They accumulate in the brain support cells … Continue reading →

Kansas City, Mo. -- January 15, 2015 -- A new study published in the American Journal of Human Genetics demonstrates the continued important contributions from the Center for Pediatric Genomic Medicine at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo. The study describes a new pediatric mitochondrial syndrome and discovery of the responsible gene, called CLPB. Dr. Carol Saunders and her team partnered with collaborators in Denmark to report their collective findings based on gene mapping and exome sequencing in five children with CLPB-related disease. These patients had strikingly similar clinical findings including cataracts, severe psychomotor regression during febrile episodes, epilepsy, neutropenia with frequent infections, urinary excretion of 3-methylglutaconic aciduria, and death in early childhood. "This research once again highlights the power of genomic medicine in the diagnosis and discovery of rare pediatric conditions," said Saunders, clinical laboratory director of the Center for Pediatric Genomic Medicine "In this case, we have identified one of the many genes, CLPB, involved in mitochondrial diseases. These findings emphasize the importance of basic research into the characterization of human CPLB gene function and will pave the way for the diagnosis of other patients." The Center for Pediatric Genomic Medicine at Children's Mercy was the first … Continue reading →