Question: How does smashing cells apart show what proteins are causing damage? @Dawn

Dawn Lau answered on 15 Jun 2016:

We can manipulate cells to make them mimic disease conditions. For example, people with Alzheimer’s disease have accumulations of sticky proteins in the brain, one of which is tau. We can artificially add this tau to our cells which gives us an experimental model to work with. When manipulate our cells, protein functions and levels are changed within the cells because the disease condition causes toxicity. To look at the protein changes caused by this toxicity caused by the artifically added tau, I break apart the cells in order to release all of the molecules inside, including the proteins. I can then separate out the proteins using a method called western blotting, and use specific antibodies to detect the proteins I think might be changing. We can then compare whether or not these proteins are changed in control, non-diseased cells. If they are changed, that indicates that that particular protein might have something to do with the progression of disease. Therefore we can further investigate the protein as a target for treatment in terms of designing drugs for Alzheimer’s disease.