Protein News and Research

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Proteins are complex molecules that are made up of amino acids. They can be found in every cell in the body, and carry out vital processes that keep human beings alive. Mutations in proteins can lead to a multitude of diseases, the most common being cancer.

New computational technique traces ghost ancestry in modern human genomes

UC Berkeley researchers have identified regions of DNA that humans inherited from two unknown ancestors as a result of long-ago interbreeding among modern humans and at least four other archaic human relatives.

30 Jul 2026

Dual immunotherapy with neoadjuvant chemotherapy shows encouraging activity in ERBB2-negative breast cancer

A combination of two immunotherapy drugs showed encouraging activity when added to standard chemotherapy given prior to surgery for patients with high-risk, early-stage HER2-negative breast cancer, according to phase 2 clinical trial results from the ongoing I-SPY2 clinical trial platform.

30 Jul 2026

New OpenABE gene editor improves editing efficiency by up to 36 times

A joint research team led by Professor Daesik Kim (Department of Medicine, Sungkyunkwan University), along with Professor Yong-Sub Kim (University of Ulsan College of Medicine) and Professor Jae-Hyun Park (Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine), has announced the development of 'OpenABE' (Open Adenine Base Editor).

30 Jul 2026

Texas A&M researchers build AI tools for tuberculosis drug discovery

When researchers screen potential tuberculosis drugs, they often end up with too many options. Some look promising but later prove to be costly dead ends.

30 Jul 2026

Cigarette smoke extract primes airway cells for greater nanoplastic damage

Researchers found that cigarette smoke extract weakened epithelial barriers and increased the proportion of human airway cells that were polystyrene nanoparticle-positive. Sequential treatment caused greater metabolic disruption and increased mucus-producing cells, suggesting heightened epithelial vulnerability, although the findings are limited to in vitro models.

30 Jul 2026

Discovery of calcium channel mechanism offers clues for brain disorder treatments

DGIST (President Kunwoo Lee) announced that a research team led by Professor Byung Chang Suh of the Department of Brain Sciences has, for the first time, uncovered a novel molecular mechanism that regulates the "N-type voltage-gated calcium channel (CaV2.2)," which plays a critical role in neural signal transmission.

29 Jul 2026

Research offers a promising way to develop potent antivenoms against deadly snakebites

University of Maryland researchers discovered a new approach to treating venomous snake bites-using the same toxin-blocking proteins that snakes evolved to protect themselves.

29 Jul 2026

NIH funds mosquito genetics research to curb deadly disease spread

Mosquito-borne pathogens, including zika, yellow fever and other illnesses have serious and worldwide impacts on human health.

29 Jul 2026

Scientists uncover how muscle actin filaments grow and renew themselves

Biophysicists unraveled a mystery of how muscles form at the molecular level and how they maintain their function.

29 Jul 2026

Chemists use programmable DNA to build precise protein crystals

For decades, scientists have largely relied on painstaking trial and error to coax proteins into crystalline forms.

29 Jul 2026

Scientists discover why bats survive deadly viruses without getting sick

It is a mystery that has puzzled scientists for years. How can the world's only winged mammals carry viruses that cause severe disease while rarely becoming seriously ill themselves?

29 Jul 2026

Researchers find potential pathway to improve glioblastoma treatment

New research published in Neuro-Oncology gives a glimpse at promising discoveries that could help shape the future of glioblastoma treatment and patient outcomes.

29 Jul 2026

Small changes in one heart protein cause distinct cardiomyopathies

Cardiomyopathies are a group of mostly hereditary, rare heart diseases in which the structure of the heart muscle tissue is impaired.

29 Jul 2026

New gene editing tool reduces Huntington's symptoms in mice

A gene editing tool designed to precisely rewrite the gene that causes Huntington's disease reduced toxic protein fragments and symptoms associated with the disease in mice, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign report.

29 Jul 2026

A closer look at Parkinson’s brains finds tau where standard tests saw little

Researchers used single-molecule and super-resolution imaging to profile protein aggregates across six brain regions from 29 post-mortem donors, detecting high-intensity phosphorylated tau aggregates in the Parkinson’s disease putamen despite negligible conventional tau staining. PD cases with dementia showed greater tau burden than those without dementia, while the assay did not detect a PD-specific population of nanoscopic alpha-synuclein aggregates.

29 Jul 2026

Researchers identify key barrier preventing self repair of heart cells

Specialized cells in our body make biological tradeoffs to do certain jobs. To support large and hardworking hearts that power our other organs, our heart cells evolved to be extremely efficient and resilient.

28 Jul 2026

Blocking the Axl receptor may offer a new way to promote bone formation

Osteoporosis is one of the most common age-related bone diseases, affecting millions of people worldwide and increasing the risk of fractures, disability, and reduced quality of life.

28 Jul 2026

Heatwave exposure associated with accelerated biological aging in middle-aged and older adults

As global climate change intensifies, heatwaves are becoming more frequent, longer, and more severe, emerging as an important environmental stressor for human health.

28 Jul 2026

Researchers uncover molecular mechanisms of muscle repair during resistance exercise

Researchers from the Universities of Hildesheim, Bonn, and Freiburg have now uncovered how human skeletal muscle responds to resistance exercise at the molecular level.

28 Jul 2026

New strategy combines cancer immunotherapy and gene therapy in a single nanoparticle

Cancer cells survive by hiding from the immune system's surveillance. A KAIST research team has developed a new anticancer platform that makes cancer cells send out their own danger signal—prompting immune cells to attack—while simultaneously delivering gene therapy.

28 Jul 2026