Exploring Life at Its Simplest: Scientists Create a "Minimal Cell Membrane" with Just Two Lipids

Surprising Effects of a Two-Lipid Diet

27-Nov-2024 - Lipids, or fats, are essential to life. They form the membranes around cells, protecting them from the outside. In nature, there is an enormous diversity of lipids, with each organism having its own unique combination. But what are the minimum lipid requirements for a cell to survive? A research ...

Neutrons for better vaccines against multidrug resistant germs

FRM II lets scientists look deep inside the structure of biomolecules

13-Apr-2023 - Neutrons from the Research Neutron Source Heinz Maier-Leibnitz (FRM II) can be used to explore the structure of biomolecules. The most recent success: the precise analysis of a promising vaccine against multidrug resistant germs. Bacteria which are resistant to all conventional antibiotics cause ...

New findings could pave the way to detecting the building blocks of life in our solar system

Detecting biomolecules on ocean moons

07-Dec-2022 - It would be technically possible for future space missions to detect DNA, lipids, and other bacterial components on ocean moons in our solar system – provided that these building blocks of life do exist beyond Earth. This is the conclusion that has now been reached by an international team of ...

Cell Membranes in Super Resolution

For the first time ever, expansion microscopy allows the imaging of even the finest details of cell membranes. This offers new insights into bacterial and viral infection processes

04-Dec-2020 - Expansion microscopy (ExM) enables the imaging of cells and their components with a spatial resolution far below 200 nanometres. For this purpose, the proteins of the sample under investigation are cross-linked into a swellable polymer. Once the interactions between the molecules have been ...

Looking at the good vibes of molecules: a new method for label-free metabolic imaging

09-Jan-2020 - Label-free dynamic detection of biomolecules is a major challenge in live-cell microscopy. The simultaneous visualization of dynamic alterations for classes of metabolites, such as carbohydrates and lipids, was an unmet need in biomedical research. Now, a novel imaging method developed by a ...

Obesity risk quantification: a jump towards the future through the lens of artificial intelligence applied to lipid science

Scientists and biotech start-up Lipotype teamed up

24-Oct-2019 - According to WHO, nearly 1 out of 6 adults is obese. This makes obesity a prime threat to human health because it increases mortality and morbidity. In daily healthcare practice, the go-to indicator of overweight and obesity is the body mass index (BMI), a calculated relation between body weight ...

The roles of RNA-RNA interactions

Chronic regeneration of damaged endothelial cells promotes the development of atherosclerosis

23-Jul-2018 - Atherosclerosis – the condition popularly known as hardening of the arteries – develops almost exclusively at junctions and sharp turns in the arterial tree. This is because, at such sites, the endothelial cells that form the lining of the blood vessels are particularly sensitive to damage – and ...

Chocolate physics: How modeling could improve 'mouthfeel'

27-Aug-2015 - Lecithin plays a vital role in the production of chocolate and many other foods. It's never been clear how this ingredient works on a molecular level, and confectioners have relied on observational methods to perfect their recipes. Now, scientists have shown how the field of molecular dynamics ...

Raman-specific Spectrometer for Algae Biofuels Measurement

29-Jul-2009 - BaySpec, Inc. announced it has shipped a Raman-specific 1064nm spectrometer designed for measuring micro-Algae, a promising future source of renewable biomass oilcrop biofuels. Unique 1064nm Raman Spectrometer resolves fluorescence issues seen at lower wavelengths : While algal oil is similar to ...