Atlas 2.0.6 Released! Nature Study Shows How Molecules Escape From the Nucleus | Einstein News. September 15, 2010 – (BRONX, NY) – By constructing a microscope apparatus that achieves resolution never before possible in living cells, researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have illuminated the molecular interactions that occur during one of the most important “trips” in all of biology: the journey of individual messenger Ribonucleic acid (RNA) molecules from the nucleus into the cytoplasm (the area between the nucleus and cell membrane) so that proteins can be made. The results, published in the September 15 online edition of Nature, mark a major advance in the use of microscopes for scientific investigation (microscopy).
The findings could lead to treatments for disorders such as myotonic dystrophy in which messenger RNA gets stuck inside the nucleus of cells. Protein synthesis is arguably the most important of all cellular processes. “Up until now, we’d really had no idea how messenger RNA travels through nuclear pores,” said Dr. Singer.