Show Notes
This release contains only the music track from Base by Base Episode 123.
Song title: Uncoupled But Unbroken
Original Base by Base episode: 123: Dominant-negative ATP5F1A variants and uncoupled oxidative phosphorylation
Article metadata:
Article title: Dominant negative ATP5F1A variants disrupt oxidative phosphorylation causing neurological disorders
Journal: EMBO Molecular Medicine
DOI: 10.1038/s44321-025-00290-8
Reference: Fielder SM et al., Dominant negative ATP5F1A variants disrupt oxidative phosphorylation causing neurological disorders. EMBO Mol Med (2025). DOI:10.1038/s44321-025-00290-8
Lyrics:
Verse 1
Midnight in the lab, the screens are cold and bright
Tracing tiny typos in the code of life tonight
A motor in the cell that used to hold the line
Now slips between the teeth where alpha meets the spine
Pre-Chorus
Breath running higher, but the lights are getting low
Power without a promise, where did the current go?
If it’s built to be a turbine, why’s it breaking in the flow?
Chorus
Uncoupled—spinning fast, still coming up short
Oxygen on the rise, but the spark won’t hold the fort
One wrong piece in the ring can bend the whole machine
But we can see the fault line, we can read what it means
Verse 2
At the contact points, where the subunits align
A dominant shadow leans in, throws the rhythm out of time
Less of the complex standing, less of the ATP flame
Yet the engine keeps on burning like it never learned its name
Bridge
Run the gels, watch the bands fade, hear the silence in the spin
Measure membrane slipping, feel the leak under the skin
Model the break in living systems, then add the wild-type back
And the noise turns into signal—like a pathway found in black
Final Chorus
Uncoupled—spinning fast, still coming up short
We name the hidden damage, we map the missing ports
From restless consumption to a weakened voltage screen
Now the story makes a circuit, now the diagnosis is clean
Uncoupled—but not unbroken, we’re closer than we’ve been
