Discovery Of Agile Molecular Motors Could Aid In Treating Motor Neuron Diseases

Over the last several months, the labs of Yale Goldman, MD, PhD, Director of the Pennsylvania Muscle Institute at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and Erika Holzbaur, PhD, Professor of Physiology, have published a group of papers that, taken together, show proteins that function as molecular motors are surprisingly flexible and agile, able to navigate obstacles within the cell. These observations could lead to better ways to treat motor neuron diseases.