SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Fluidigm has announced that the TOPAZ system has been used to determine the structure of the R5-6 fragment of reelin, a large secreted glycoprotein that plays an important role in brain development and is implicated in several brain diseases, including schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease. The structure determination provides new insight into the initial ligand-receptor interaction of the reelin signaling pathway and reveals the unexpected presence of bound Zn ions on the surface of reelin. The full details of the structure are described in “Structure of a receptor-binding fragment of reelin and mutational analysis reveal a recognition mechanism similar to endocytic receptors” in the June 12, 2007 issue of Proceedings of the National Acadamy of Sciences (PNAS).
