Amy Palmer

Ionic Zn 2+ has increasingly been recognized as an important neurotransmitter and signaling ion in glutamatergic neuron pathways. Intracellular Zn 2+ transiently increases as a result of neuronal excitation, and this Zn 2+ signal is essential for neuron plasticity, but the source and regulation of the signal is still unclear...

Zinc is widely recognized as essential for growth and proliferation, yet the mechanisms of how zinc deficiency arrests these processes remain enigmatic. Here we induce subtle zinc perturbations and track asynchronously cycling cells throughout division using fluorescent reporters, high throughput microscopy, and quantitative analysis. Zinc deficiency induces quiescence and resupply...

Zinc is the second most abundant transition metal in humans and an essential nutrient required for growth and development of newborns. During lactation, mammary epithelial cells differentiate into a secretory phenotype, uptake zinc from blood circulation, and export it into mother’s milk. At the cellular level, many zinc-dependent cellular processes,...

Green fluorescent proteins (GFP) and their blue, cyan and red counterparts offer unprecedented advantages as biological markers owing to their genetic encodability and straightforward expression in different organisms. Although significant advancements have been made towards engineering the key photo-physical properties of red fluorescent proteins (RFPs), they continue to perform sub-optimally...

Genetically encoded Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) sensors enable the visualization of ions, molecules, and processes in live cells. However, despite their widespread use, the molecular states that determine sensor performance are usually poorly understood, which limits efforts to improve them. We used dynamic light scattering (DLS) and time-resolved fluorescence...

The identification of activating mutations in NOTCH1 in 50% of T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia has generated interest in elucidating how these mutations contribute to oncogenic transformation and in targeting the pathway. A phenotypic screen identified compounds that interfere with trafficking of Notch and induce apoptosis via an endoplasmic reticulum...

Zinc (Zn2+) is an integral component of many proteins and has been shown to act in a regulatory capacity in different mammalian systems, including as a neurotransmitter in neurons throughout the brain. While Zn2+ plays an important role in modulating neuronal potentiation and synaptic plasticity, little is known about the...

In a multidisciplinary study recently published in Nature Chemical Biology, researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder have developed a novel tool for visualizing RNA. This project centered on a collaboration between the Palmer Lab, with expertise in live cell imaging, the Batey Lab, with expertise in RNA, and the...

Researchers at the BioFrontiers Institute have developed a fluorescent-based approach to study virulence proteins secreted by the Listeria monocytogenes pathogen. The work was performed by the lab of Dr. Amy Palmer and recently published in Biophysical Journal. Listeria monocytogenes is a bacterium which causes the foodborne illness listeriosis in approximately...

Few people think of metals as being vital to our health. Although most people are aware of iron, zinc is just as important, and is involved in a much wider array of biological functions. Ten percent of the proteins used to build our cells, tissues and genes are predicted to...