Structural Biology News and Research

RSS

Scientists identify a molecular switch that controls water flow in the gut

Although constipation and diarrhea may seem like opposite problems, they both hinge on the same underlying issue: how much fluid moves into the gut. These common issues affect millions of people in the U.S. each year, yet scientists have not fully understood what regulates intestinal fluid balance.

9 Jan 2026

Newly discovered molecules accelerate the removal of immune-modulating enzyme

Cells have a remarkable housekeeping system: proteins that are no longer needed, defective, or potentially harmful are labeled with a molecular "tag" and dismantled in the cellular recycling machinery.

7 Jan 2026

TAAR1 mutation impairs brain signaling in schizophrenia

A genetic mutation passed from mother to children in families affected by schizophrenia has now been shown to completely silence a brain receptor that pharmaceutical companies are racing to target with new drugs.

6 Jan 2026

Scientists capture real-time action of antiviral drugs on herpes

Harvard Medical School researchers have uncovered crucial insights into how an emerging class of antiviral drugs works.

30 Dec 2025

New research reveals a hidden source of cellular bioelectricity

Many biological processes are regulated by electricity-from nerve impulses to heartbeats to the movement of molecules in and out of cells.

19 Dec 2025

Hidden kinase state enables rapid and repeated protein phosphorylation

Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have characterized a hidden intermediate state at the center of Src kinase function. This hidden state allows the kinase to repeatedly modify its target, without needing to release and reattach to the target each time.

19 Dec 2025

Flow chemistry, AI, and NMR: A next-gen approach to scalable API production

Discover how AI, flow chemistry, and NMR come together in the PiPAC project to revolutionize scalable and autonomous API production.

From Bruker BioSpin Group 17 Dec 2025

Study shines light on how P2X4 receptor can be inhibited

A study carried out by the University of Bonn and the University Hospital Bonn throws light on how an important receptor can be inhibited.

5 Dec 2025

Study provides first molecular evidence that ferroptosis can drive neurodegeneration

Researchers at Helmholtz Munich, the Technical University of Munich and the LMU University Hospital Munich uncovered a mechanism that protects nerve cells from premature cell death, known as ferroptosis.

4 Dec 2025

Mapping SV2A drug binding offers a path to better epilepsy treatments

A multi-institute team led by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and UT Southwestern Medical Center investigators established for the first time how certain drugs used to treat epilepsy affect their target.

1 Dec 2025

Researchers capture a ribozyme in motion for the first time

RNA is a central biological macromolecule, now widely harnessed in medicine and nanotechnology. Like proteins, RNA function often depends on its precise three-dimensional structure.

27 Nov 2025

Abselion launches His-Tagged Protein Quantification Kit and Sensors for Amperia at PEGS Europe 2025

Abselion, a pioneering life sciences technology company focused on simplifying biomolecule quantification, has expanded its Amperia™ assay portfolio with the launch of its Tagged Protein Quantification Kit | His-tag and Tagged Protein Sensor | His-tag Quantification.

10 Nov 2025

Scientists map kinesin-2 tail structure to understand cargo binding

For decades, scientists have known that motor proteins like kinesin-2 ferry vital cargo along microtubule "highways" inside cells. But how these molecular vehicles identify and bind to the right cargo remained a mystery. The new study provides a key piece of this puzzle by revealing the atomic-level structure of the kinesin-2 tail and its interaction with cargo and adaptor proteins.

6 Nov 2025

St. Jude scientists identify new therapeutic target for high-risk pediatric leukemia

Acute myeloid leukemia driven by tandem duplications within the UBTF gene (UBTF-TD AML) is a high-risk pediatric cancer in urgent need of novel therapeutic options.

3 Nov 2025

Scientists capture a near-continuous molecular movie of ribosome formation

Ribosomes are the cell's protein factories, which read the genetic code and assemble the proteins that every organism needs to live. But as far as how ribosomes themselves were formed, tantalizingly little was known.

30 Oct 2025

Breakthrough could offer a new therapeutic option for stopping diabetes-induced complications

Researchers from the University at Albany and NYU Grossman School of Medicine have found a way to block a key cellular pathway known to drive chronic inflammation and impaired wound healing in people with diabetes.

30 Oct 2025

Machine learning advances drug discovery through generalizable models

The drug development pipeline is a costly and lengthy process. Identifying high-quality "hit" compounds-those with high potency, selectivity, and favorable metabolic properties-at the earliest stages is important for reducing cost and accelerating the path to clinical trials.

16 Oct 2025

Revolutionary structures show how chaperone proteins prevent diseases caused by protein misfolding

The first full-length structures of two heat shock chaperone proteins in a complex reveal the key structural region regulating their function, according to a new study from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

15 Oct 2025

New AI system revolutionizes drug design and vaccine development

The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the field of structural biology. In May 2024, DeepMind and Isomorphic Labs launched AlphaFold 3 (AF3), a revolutionary AI system capable of predicting the 3D structures and interactions of proteins, nucleic acids, small molecules, ions, and other biomolecules with remarkable precision.

10 Oct 2025

Researchers design intrinsically disordered proteins with tailored properties

In synthetic and structural biology, advances in artificial intelligence have led to an explosion of designing new proteins with specific functions, from antibodies to blood clotting agents, by using computers to accurately predict the 3D structure of any given amino acid sequence.

7 Oct 2025