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New Caltech study shows how chaperones protect ribosomal proteins

For proteins, this would be the equivalent of the red-carpet treatment: each protein belonging to the complex machinery of ribosomes -- components of the cell that produce proteins -- has its own chaperone to guide it to the right place at the right time and protect it from harm.

3 Feb 2017

Virginia Tech researchers receive NIH grant to improve malaria drug

As long as parasites continue to mount resistance to malaria drugs, scientists will be faced with the task of developing new, improved pharmaceuticals.

3 Feb 2017

Neutron analysis helps better understand key bacterial enzyme implicated in stomach cancer

Neutron analysis at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory is helping researchers better understand a key enzyme found in a bacterium known to cause stomach cancer.

2 Feb 2017

Review highlights how light-sensing bacterial protein's structure aids biomedical research

A light-sensing protein from a salt-loving, sulfur-forming microbe has proved key to developing methods essential to advanced drug discovery, understanding human vision and other biomedical applications.

1 Feb 2017

Jefferson researchers reveal new insight into two states of viral protein

To generate swarms of new viral particles, a virus hijacks a cell into producing masses of self-assembling cages that are then loaded with the genetic blueprint for the next infection.

31 Jan 2017

Single-molecule compounds may become basis for new antioxidant therapies

Treated particles of graphene derived from carbon nanotubes have demonstrated remarkable potential as life-saving antioxidants, but as small as they are, something even smaller had to be created to figure out why they work so well.

28 Jan 2017

Chemists show that synthetic nanoparticles can achieve structural complexity of biomolecules

Chemists at Carnegie Mellon University have demonstrated that synthetic nanoparticles can achieve the same level of structural complexity, hierarchy and accuracy as their natural counterparts - biomolecules.

24 Jan 2017

Advanced NMR-based methods for studying RNPs and drug design

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is a powerful analytical tool widely used in chemical research to investigate the structure and dynamics of molecules.

From Bruker BioSpin Group 24 Jan 2017

Researchers unravel bacterial protein structure that could pave way for new antibiotics

Bacterial cells have an added layer of protection, called the cell wall, that animal cells don't. Assembling this tough armor entails multiple steps, some of which are targeted by antibiotics like penicillin and vancomycin.

12 Jan 2017

Study provides fundamental insights into functioning of microbiota and human-gut flora symbiosis

The researchers, led by Professor Bert van den Berg and Dr. David Bolam from the Institute of Cell and Molecular Biosciences at Newcastle University and with support from collaborators at Jacobs University Bremen, report on their findings today in Nature.

12 Jan 2017

Developing high field solid-state NMR for the characterization of complex targets

Solid-state NMR spectroscopy is a technique used by scientists to provide valuable information in the analysis of solid materials. It provides unique and specific insights into the structure, dynamics, and reactivity of all kinds of materials.

From Bruker BioSpin Group 10 Jan 2017

Researchers provide clues to how mcr-1 gene protects bacteria from 'last resort' antibiotic

An international research team, led by the University of Bristol, has provided the first clues to understand how the mcr-1 gene protects bacteria from colistin - a 'last resort' antibiotic used to treat life-threatening bacterial infections that do not respond to other treatment options.

6 Jan 2017

Scientists reveal chemical process behind anti-cancer properties of spicy pepper plant

UT Southwestern Medical Center scientists have uncovered the chemical process behind anti-cancer properties of a spicy Indian pepper plant called the long pepper, whose suspected medicinal properties date back thousands of years.

4 Jan 2017

TSRI researchers develop new approach to find how environmental estrogens impact public health

Breast cancer researchers from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have developed a novel approach for identifying how chemicals in the environment—called environmental estrogens—can produce infertility, abnormal reproductive development, including “precocious puberty,” and promote breast cancer.

3 Jan 2017

TSRI scientists develop new approach for understanding diverse effects of endocrine-disruptors

Breast cancer researchers from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have developed a novel approach for identifying how chemicals in the environment--called environmental estrogens--can produce infertility, abnormal reproductive development, including "precocious puberty," and promote breast cancer.

30 Dec 2016

TSRI scientists shed light on how antiviral drug stops influenza infections

A new study led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) is the first to show exactly how the drug Arbidol stops influenza infections. The research reveals that Arbidol stops the virus from entering host cells by binding within a recessed pocket on the virus.

22 Dec 2016

Microseeding could be potential method for overcoming hemihedral twinning in protein crystals

Twinning is a crystal-growth disorder in which the specimen is composed of distinct domains whose orientations differ but are related in a particular, well-defined way.

16 Dec 2016

UT Southwestern researchers develop new imaging method to see proteins in action

UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers developed a new imaging technique that makes X-ray images of proteins as they move in response to electric field pulses.

16 Dec 2016

New study may shed light on diseases associated with mutations in aminoacyl tRNA synthetases

New research led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute reveals that a human enzyme has changed little from its days as a bacterial enzyme. In fact, the enzyme appears to be unique in its ability to change its shape—and its job in cells—without overhauling its basic architecture.

14 Dec 2016

Biochemists uncover how potential diabetes drugs interact with LRH-1 protein

Imagine a key that opens a pin tumbler lock. A very similar key can also fit into the lock, but upside down in comparison to the first key.

6 Dec 2016