The ‘selenosome’: The choreography which governs recoding

Cryo-electron microscopy visualizes cellular structures

29-Jun-2022 - A team led by researchers from Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin has succeeded in deciphering a fundamental process of molecular biology: the incorporation of selenocysteine – the ‘21st amino acid’ – into selenium-containing proteins known as selenoproteins. These protein constructions are ...

Clever combination of quantum physics and molecular biology

Artificial intelligence affords unprecedented insights into how biomolecules work

08-Nov-2021 - A new analytical technique is able to provide hitherto unattainable insights into the extremely rapid dynamics of biomolecules. The team of developers, led by Abbas Ourmazd from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and Robin Santra from DESY, is presenting its clever combination of quantum ...

Illuminating the genome

RNA-guided endonuclease - in situ labelling, a new CRISPR/Cas9 based molecular visualisation method

12-Mar-2019 - The CRISPR/Cas9 system has been making ripples in the scientific community ever since its mechanisms were proposed in 2012. Commonly referred to as a genome editing tool, many scientists have found different applications for the scissor-like properties of the Cas9-protein. Researchers from the ...

Cells stop dividing when this gene kicks into high gear

25-Jun-2018 - Scientists seeking to unlock the secrets of cellular aging have identified a gene that triggers senescence, a phenomenon in which cells stop dividing. Senescence is a natural occurrence in the life of a cell, and researchers have sought to learn about it for a couple of reasons. First, it's ...

Lipids and proteins: Further evidence for functional crosstalk in cells

19-Jun-2018 - Researchers at Kanazawa University have uncovered the role of lipids in facilitating a functional switch between two forms of a cellular enzyme: Peroxiredoxin (Prxs). Their study published in the Journal of Molecular Biology explains how negatively charged membrane lipids can bind to Prxs, and ...

A new way to stimulate cellular recycling process

18-May-2018 - Brown University researchers studying the biology of aging have demonstrated a new strategy for stimulating autophagy, the process by which cells rebuild themselves by recycling their own worn-out parts. In a study the researchers show that the approach increased the lifespans of worms and flies, ...

Stone age hepatitis B virus decoded

Viral DNA shows the hepatitis B virus has been circulating in Europe for at least 7.000 years

14-May-2018 - An international team of scientists led by researchers at Kiel University in the scope the CRC 1266 “Scales of Transformation” and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History has successfully reconstructed genomes from Stone Age and Medieval European strains of the hepatitis B ...

Potential source of gender differences in migraines discovered

24-Apr-2018 - Of the more than 38 million Americans who experience migraine headaches, 28 million are women. Compared to men, women also experience more frequent and severe migraines and don't respond as well to drug treatments. Findings from a new study conducted in rats reveal that females may be more ...

How pathogenic bacteria prepare a sticky adhesion protein

10-Apr-2018 - Researchers at Harvard Medical School, the University of California, San Francisco, and the University of Georgia have described how the protein that allows strep and staph bacteria to stick to human cells is prepared and packaged. The research could facilitate the development of new ...

Better understanding ALS by looking at how cells change

20-Mar-2018 - It took eight long years of research, but now an international team led by neuroscientists at Université de Montréal has discovered a basic molecular mechanism that better helps understand how Lou Gehrig's disease, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), works. And that basic science could ...