{"id":242720,"date":"2026-08-14T14:06:26","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T19:06:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/cells-use-a-little-known-molecule-to-protect-themselves-from-iron-overload"},"modified":"2026-08-14T14:06:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T19:06:26","slug":"cells-use-a-little-known-molecule-to-protect-themselves-from-iron-overload","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/cells-use-a-little-known-molecule-to-protect-themselves-from-iron-overload","title":{"rendered":"Cells use a little-known molecule to protect themselves from iron overload"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/cells-use-a-little-known-molecule-to-protect-themselves-from-iron-overload3.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Iron is essential. Our cells need it to produce energy, carry oxygen throughout the body and power countless chemical reactions that sustain life. But this metal has a dark side. When too much of it is left free inside cells, it can trigger destructive reactions that break down DNA, proteins and even cell membranes.<\/p>\n<p>Now, Whitehead Institute Member Ankur Jain, former postdoc Whitney Henry and graduate student Pushkal Sharma have discovered that cells rely on an unexpected protector against this threat: small molecules called polyamines.<\/p>\n<p>The researchers\u2019 detailed findings, published in the journal <i>Cell<\/i>, reveal that polyamines act like storage lockers for iron, safely holding the metal in a nonreactive state until cells need it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Iron is essential. Our cells need it to produce energy, carry oxygen throughout the body and power countless chemical reactions that sustain life. But this metal has a dark side. When too much of it is left free inside cells, it can trigger destructive reactions that break down DNA, proteins and even cell membranes. Now, [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-242720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-chemistry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242720\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}