The Lords of Chios

BH3-only proteins: the lords of death.

Although the mechanisms by which Bcl-2 family proteins control the apoptotic machinery of the cell are not fully understood, it becomes clear that the role of BH3-only proteins consists in serving as sensors or sentinels of cellular damage, transducing the apoptotic stimuli to the mitochondria. For this reason, mammalian cells have developed several strategies for their strict regulation throug...

AAA Proteins: Lords of the Ring

AAA ATPases (those associated with various cellular activities) 1 play important roles in numerous cellular activities including proteolysis, protein folding, membrane trafficking, cytoskeletal regulation, organelle biogenesis, DNA replication, and intracellular motility. Recent structural and enzymatic studies are providing clues into the properties of the conserved AAA domain that defines thi...

Debate in the House of Lords

A doctor in the House of Lords.

willing to take the ‘Labour Whip’ in the House of Lords? I was not sure that I liked the sound of a ‘Labour Whip’ and although, of course, flattered to be considered, I was confused about what it would entail. I had little idea then about what, if anything, the Lords really did. As a complete outsider it is certainly a confusing place to enter and only now after some six years have I begun to u...

Lords' Debate Problem of Leisure

WHEN Baroness Burton of Coventry rose in the House of Lords on Wednesday, May 13th, 1964, to call attention to the problem of leisure, she reminded the House of a debate during the previous month on the need for an increase of automation in British industry and commerce, and for effective planning to meet the inevitable changes which it would cause in our society. She said that in 1957, she had...