Fatty acid factory filmed at work

High-resolution images provide new insights into cellular fatty acid production: Potential for medicine and biotechnology

15-Nov-2023 - Fatty acids are essential in all living organisms: to store energy, form membranes, and multiply. They are produced by a complex cellular machinery – the fatty acid synthase (FAS). A team of the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Multidisciplinary Sciences, led by Ashwin Chari and Holger Stark, have ...

Structural biology: Molecular scissors caught in the act

Structure of an enzyme crucial for tRNA maturation sheds light on cause of neurodegenerative disorders

17-Jul-2023 - In all living organisms, the biomolecule transfer RNA (tRNA) plays a fundamental role in protein production. tRNAs are generated from precursor molecules in several steps. The enzyme tRNA splicing endonuclease (TSEN), among other things, catalyzes one step in this process. Mutations in TSEN lead ...

Time-resolved crystallography for the masses

“The Spitrobot will greatly accelerate research in enzymatic mechanisms"

08-May-2023 - Scientists from four research institutes in the Science City Hamburg Bahrenfeld have joined forces to develop a ground-breaking experimental setup. Their new Spitrobot greatly simplifies observing changes in proteins as they carry out their functions. This makes time-resolved crystallography ...

New light for shaping electron beams

Adaptive imaging technique for materials science and structural biology

03-Oct-2022 - A new technique that combines electron microscopy and laser technology enables programmable, arbitrary shaping of electron beams. It can potentially be used for optimizing electron optics and for adaptive electron microscopy, maximizing sensitivity while minimizing beam-induced damage. This ...

Comparison of two nano rulers

Study compares two methods for distance measurement in motile proteins

08-Aug-2022 - In the Middle Ages, every city had its own system of measurement. Even today, you can sometimes find iron rods in marketplaces that determined the length measurement valid for the city at that time. In science, however, there is no room for such uncertainties, and no matter what method you use to ...

A "nano-robot" built entirely from DNA to explore cell processes

02-Aug-2022 - Constructing a tiny robot from DNA and using it to study cell processes invisible to the naked eye... You would be forgiven for thinking it is science fiction, but it is in fact the subject of serious research by scientists from Inserm, CNRS and Université de Montpellier at the Structural Biology ...

Microscopy technique enables 3D super-resolution nanometre-scale imaging

Research team combine two techniques to achieve isotropic super-resolution imaging

24-Jun-2022 - Over the last two decades, microscopy has seen unprecedented advances in speed and resolution. However, cellular structures are essentially three-dimensional, and conventional super-resolution techniques often lack the necessary resolution in all three directions to capture details at a nanometer ...

Light shed on the atomic resolution structure of phage DNA tube

A methodological milestone

17-Nov-2020 - Given that phages are able to destroy bacteria, they are of particular interest to science. Basic researchers from the Leibniz-Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pharmakologie (FMP) in Berlin are especially interested in the tube used by phages to implant their DNA into bacteria. In collaboration ...

Getting to the heart of an enzyme

Decoding the heart of NatC: X-rays help shed light on structure

10-Nov-2020 - A team led by Oliver Daumke at the MDC has determined the three-dimensional structure of the NatC acetyltransferase in an article published in Nature Communications. This enzyme modifies cell proteins to enable them to perform their functions correctly. In cancer cells, however, NatC is often ...

Virus multiplication in 3D

16-Dec-2019 - Vaccinia viruses serve as a vaccine against human smallpox and as the basis of new cancer therapies. Two studies now provide fascinating insights into their unusual propagation strategy at the atomic level. For viruses to multiply, they usually need the support of the cells they infect. In many ...