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Sunny Side Up (Andrea Waite, Graduate Student, Cell and Developmental Biology) This cell was stained to identify the structural protein tubulin (blue) and the Familial Mediterranean Fever protein, pyrin (aqua). This cell is moving in the direction of the four paddle-shaped lamellapodia or feet. Pyrin seems to be concentrated on the leading edges of these feet. The pyrin gene, when mutated, causes Familial Mediterranean Fever, a disease common in the Mediterranean basin. Patients suffer from sporadic attacks of high fever, intense localized pain and severe inflammation. At the cellular level, the function of Pyrin is unclear, but it is thought to participate in the body’s machinery for sensing inflammatory triggers.
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