Protein interactions: who is partying with whom and who is ruining the party?

New method for investigating protein interaction networks - also of interest for pharmaceutical research

18-Oct-2024 - Inside cells, it's like in a packed dance club: hundreds are partying. Some keep to themselves, others make their way through the crowd, chatting to everyone they meet. Some just say a quick hello, others stay with their best friends. In this club, there are all kinds of different interactions ...

British chemist is honoured for her groundbreaking work in mass spectrometry

​​Dame Carol Robinson opened a new era for protein analysis and drug development

27-Jun-2024 - British scientist Dame Carol Robinson, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Oxford and a trailblazer in the field of mass spectrometry, has dedicated her career to exploring the molecular makeup of proteins within their native environments. Her pioneering work has paved the way for ...

Researchers visualise activity of CRISPR genetic scissors

New method allows precise observation of gene recognition

14-Jul-2023 - Scientists at Leipzig University, in collaboration with colleagues at Vilnius University in Lithuania, have developed a new method to measure the smallest twists and torques of molecules within milliseconds. The method makes it possible to track the gene recognition of CRISPR-Cas protein ...

Deadly virus structures point toward new avenues for vaccine design

By comparing the structures of protein complexes from different lineages of the dangerous Lassa virus, a Scripps Research team identified new antibodies and vaccine targets

12-Jun-2023 - Every year, hundreds of thousands of people in West Africa become infected with Lassa virus, which can cause Lassa fever and lead to severe illness, long-term side effects or death. There are currently no widely approved treatments or vaccines for the disease. Now, scientists at Scripps Research ...

Shedding New Light on Viruses

Analysis of viruses with a combination of mass spectrometry and X-ray laser

19-Dec-2022 - Professor Dr. Charlotte Uetrecht from the University of Siegen is studying the structures of proteins and protein complexes in coronaviruses and noroviruses, and how they change over the viral lifecycle. She is developing a new method to obtain as much information as possible about states of ...

Structure of key protein for cell division puzzles researchers

Researchers provide a first 3D snapshot of the CCAN protein complex and raise fundamental questions towards the creation of artificial chromosomes

17-May-2022 - Human cell division involves hundreds of proteins at its core. Knowing the 3D structure of these proteins is pivotal to understand how our genetic material is duplicated and passed through generations. The groups of Andrea Musacchio and Stefan Raunser at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular ...

The body as a network

A new VR platform enables the display of huge amounts of data. This can be helpful in the study of rare genetic defects, among other things

27-Apr-2021 - Networks offer a powerful way to visualize and analyze complex systems. However, depending on the size and complexity of the network, many visualizations are limited. Protein interactions in the human body constitute such a complex system that can hardly be visualized. Jörg Menche, Adjunct ...

Frozen: Cutting-edge technology reveals structures within cells

05-Jan-2021 - New methods enable scientists at IST Austria to take a look at the innermost of cells: high-resolution images of deep-frozen cells show structures that previously could only be guessed at. Temperatures of minus 196 degrees Celsius enable high-resolution imaging of the cell’s interior. Researchers ...

Dissecting protein assemblies

New molecular details from mitochondria

14-Aug-2020 - Super-resolution MINFLUX nanoscopy, developed by Nobel laureate Stefan Hell and his team, is able to discern fluorescent molecules that are only a few nanometers apart. In an initial application of this technique to cell biology, researchers led by Stefan Hell and Stefan Jakobs have now optically ...

How smart, ultrathin nanosheets go fishing for proteins

Faster and simpler production of high-resolution, three-dimensional electron microscopy images of biomolecules

21-Jul-2020 - An interdisciplinary team from Frankfurt and Jena has developed a kind of bait with which to fish protein complexes out of mixtures. Thanks to this “bait”, the desired protein is available much faster for further examination in the electron microscope. The research team has christened this ...