{"id":107192,"date":"2026-03-02T20:32:33","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T20:32:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/?p=107192"},"modified":"2026-03-02T20:32:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T20:32:34","slug":"uri-researcher-investigates-zinc-mobilization-in-brain-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2026\/03\/uri-researcher-investigates-zinc-mobilization-in-brain-development\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 researcher investigates zinc mobilization in brain development"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 March 2, 2026 \u2013 Could understanding how a single metal moves inside our cells change what we know about how the brain is built? That\u2019s one of the questions driving 溏心vlog免费B站 Assistant Professor of Cell and Molecular Biology Caitlin Murdoch\u2019s<\/a> research, now supported by a prestigious NIH R00 award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part of the National Institutes of Health, the $747,000 competitive award supports early-career scientists as they transition from postdoctoral training to independent research careers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy research focuses on understanding how cells move and use zinc, a metal that is essential for many of the body\u2019s enzymes to work properly,\u201d Murdoch said. Zinc is especially critical during brain development. \u201cWhen zinc levels are too low, critical steps such as DNA, RNA, and protein synthesis are disrupted during brain development, leading to structural and functional abnormalities and increasing the risk of later neurological disease.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How zinc is delivered to the right molecular targets inside cells remains largely unknown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDespite zinc\u2019s clear importance, we still know surprisingly little about how cells direct zinc to the specific enzymes and pathways that rely on it, particularly during neurogenesis,\u201d Murdoch said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For this research, Murdoch\u2019s lab is using zebrafish and cell culture models to investigate how the movement of zinc inside cells guides the formation of different neural cell subtypes and ultimately influences brain development and behavior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis kind of foundational insight is exactly what the NIGMS supports: research that explains the basic biology underlying human health,\u201d she said. \u201cIn the long term, a deeper understanding of zinc homeostasis inside cells may help scientists develop new ways to address diseases in which zinc balance is disrupted, including certain neurodegenerative disorders.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The award also advances Murdoch\u2019s broader scientific goals. \u201cMy broader research program aims to uncover how genetic and environmental factors influence the way cells handle essential nutrient metals, and how these metal-dependent processes guide normal cellular and tissue development,\u201d she said. \u201cThis grant directly advances that goal by allowing me to investigate how zinc metabolism shapes early brain development.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During her postdoctoral fellowship, Murdoch identified a new family of proteins that may play a key role in this process. \u201cOur recent discovery of a family of proteins we named ZNG1 metallochaperones begins to fill this gap,\u201d Murdoch said. \u201cZNG1 proteins represent the first identified zinc metallochaperones in vertebrates.\u201d Because free zinc inside cells is extremely limited, delivery systems are essential. \u201cZNG1 metallochaperones carry out this delivery by binding zinc and transferring it to specific target proteins,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A member of the minnow family of fish, zebrafish have several unique advantages that make them a productive model for studying how metals influence brain development. Because embryos develop externally, researchers can precisely manipulate metal levels. \u201cBy simply adding metals or metal-binding compounds to the water, we can precisely adjust metal levels and study how those changes affect development, something that is much harder to do in mammalian models.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The transparency of zebrafish embryos and larvae also allows scientists to observe brain formation in real time. \u201cWhen we combine these fluorescent reporters with the transparency of the zebrafish larvae, we can visualize brain development at a resolution that is not possible in traditional mammalian models,\u201d Murdoch said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond advancing scientific discovery, the NIH R00 award will also strengthen training opportunities. \u201cThis funding provides an important opportunity to expand my research team within the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology<\/a>,\u201d she said. \u201cUltimately, this support will make it possible for the lab to pursue innovative and exciting experimental directions, offering students hands-on training at the cutting edge of metallobiology.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This story was written by Anna Gray in 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s College of the Environment and Life Sciences.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 March 2, 2026 \u2013 Could understanding how a single metal moves inside our cells change what we know about how the brain is built? That\u2019s one of the questions driving 溏心vlog免费B站 Assistant Professor of Cell and Molecular Biology Caitlin Murdoch\u2019s research, now supported by a prestigious NIH R00 award […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":107193,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5,1908,1905],"class_list":["post-107192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","tag-college-of-the-environment-and-life-sciences","tag-faculty-excellence","tag-research"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107192"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107194,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107192\/revisions\/107194"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}