Protein found to carry toxic metal in cells

Dr. Barry P. Rosen, professor and chairman of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Wayne State University 's School of Medicine, has made a fundamental discovery about how cells detoxify arsenic.

Dr. Rosen and a team of researchers at Wayne State University in Detroit and the University of Durham in the United Kingdom, have been studying arsenic toxicity in water supplies, particularly in countries such as Bangladesh and India, but also well water in Oakland County, Michigan. Their research has identified a bacterial protein, ArsD, that acts as a "chaperone" for arsenic to carry the toxic metal to a pump that removes it from the cell. According to Dr. Rosen, "This chaperone prevents arsenic from reacting with other proteins inside of cells."