Research Highlights

Short, accessible synopses of recent important articles concerning signalling pathways.

November 2006

• Systems biology with a view

  

  Imagine a cutting-edge systems biology unit in a state-of-the-art research park with a community of top scientists, all within a stone's throw of the sand and waves of the sunny Mediterranean coast. Well, there is no longer a need to daydream— in September 2006, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) launched the EMBL/CRG Research Unit for Systems Biology in Barcelona, Spain.

  Original research paper Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology 7 792 doi:10.1038/nrm2051

• Cell signalling: Walking the integrin activation road

  

  Many signalling molecules have been shown to regulate integrin activation, yet the molecular links that connect agonist stimulation with the final steps that lead to integrin activation are not known. Han et al. now describe a pathway from agonist stimulation to integrin activation and establish that Rap1 induces the formation of an 'integrin activation complex' that binds to and activates integrin receptors.

  Original research paper Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology 7 795 doi:10.1038/nrm2048