Crystallography News and Research

RSS

Rice University scientists win NIH stimulus funds to study influenza A

Rice University scientists have won a $1.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to scrutinize the influenza A virus for clues that could lead to more effective antiviral drugs. Strains of influenza A include this year's pandemic H1N1 variety, some seasonal varieties and the much-feared H5N1 bird flu.

21 Oct 2009

NIH awards a $2.2M grant to biochemist for a high-resolution electron microscope

Waltham, MA-Researchers' ability to rapidly detect the macromolecular protein clumps implicated in Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases will soon get a sizable boost in the lab of biochemist and Howard Hughes Medical Investigator Nikolaus Grigorieff. The National Institutes of Health has just awarded Grigorieff a $2.2 million grant for a second high-resolution electron microscope (EM) in his lab.

8 Oct 2009

Scientists uncover the role of first-responder molecule involved in repairing DNA strand breaks

Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Scripps Research Institute have uncovered the role played by the least-understood part of a first-responder molecule that rushes in to bind and repair breaks in DNA strands, a process that helps people avoid cancer.

5 Oct 2009

Biochemists are developing a new system to better understand antibiotic resistance

Rice University biochemists are developing a system of "evolutionary forecasting" to better understand the mechanisms of antibiotic resistance.

22 Sep 2009

Improved-resolution views of a zinc transporter protein deciphered

New, improved-resolution views of a zinc transporter protein deciphered at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory provide not just a structure but also a suggested mechanism for how cells sense and regulate zinc, an element that is essential for life, but which must be kept at a steady state to avoid problems like seizures, diabetes, and possibly Alzheimer's disease.

14 Sep 2009

BEST bags orders for state-of-the-art synchrotron instrumentation

Bruker Energy & Supercon Technologies, Inc. (BEST) today announced that its subsidiary Bruker ASC GmbH in Bergisch Gladbach, Germany, has been awarded several significant contracts for state-of-the-art synchrotron instrumentation from leading research institutions worldwide.

8 Sep 2009

Boron-based molecules can be used as new pharmacophores

Chemists and biologists have successfully demonstrated that specially synthesized boron compounds are readily accepted in biologically active enzymes, a move that, they say, is a proof of concept that could lead to new drug design strategies.

3 Sep 2009

Hope for limiting skin toxicity of cancer drug users

There may be a way around the harsh skin toxicity associated with a widely used cancer drug, according to a study published online this week in Cancer Biology and Therapy by researchers from City of Hope and the Kimmel Cancer at Jefferson.

2 Sep 2009

Enzymes could be targeted to kill dangerous pathogens

Researchers at Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham), University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and University of Maryland have demonstrated that an enzyme that is essential to many bacteria can be targeted to kill dangerous pathogens.

28 Aug 2009

Researchers discover elusive nanoscale movements of ribosomes at work

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have for the first time captured elusive nanoscale movements of ribosomes at work, shedding light on how these cellular factories take in genetic instructions and amino acids to churn out proteins.

24 Aug 2009

Custom-tailored anti-cancer drugs

Cancer remains a deadly threat despite the best efforts of science. New hopes were raised a few years ago with the discovery that the uncontrolled growth of cancer cells could be thwarted by blocking the action of proteasomes. Biochemists at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) have illuminated a reaction pathway that does just that, in collaboration with researchers from Nereus Pharmaceuticals, based in San Diego, California. In the current issue of the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, they report insights that could potentially lead to the development of custom-tailored anti-cancer drugs.

19 Aug 2009

Research looks at enzyme that causes genetic diseases

Researchers from CIC bioGUNE's Structural Biology Unit and Columbia University (New York) have conducted a joint research project, published in the prestigious scientific journal Structure, to gain in-depth knowledge of the structure of pyruvate carboxylase when it is in solution (in the "natural" state).

5 Aug 2009

Discovery of the cell's water gate may lead to new cancer drugs

The flow of water into and out from the cell may play a crucial role in several types of cancer. Scientists at the University of Gothenburg have now found the gate that regulates the flow of water into yeast cells.

17 Jun 2009

Structure of the HIV protein shell revealed

New research by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute and other institutions provides a close-up look at the cone-shaped shell that is the hallmark of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), revealing how it is held together - and possible ways to break it apart.

13 Jun 2009

Yeast 'DNA damage sensor' provides chemotherapy resistance clue

Cancer Research UK scientists have been part of an international collaboration that has revealed the structure of a protein found in simple yeast cells and shown how it flags up damaged DNA for repair. The results of their study are published in Nature*. The finding may provide clues as to how some cancer cells become resistant to certain chemotherapy drugs.

11 Jun 2009

Research identifies 3D structure of key nuclear pore building block

The genome of complex organisms is stashed away inside each cell's nucleus, a little like a sovereign shielded from the threatening world outside.

8 Jun 2009

Matrix protein key to fighting viruses

Researchers from Durham University's Centre for Bioactive Chemistry are developing methods that show how proteins interact with cell membranes when a virus strikes.

30 Apr 2009

Scientists uncover mimicry at the molecular level that protects genome integrity

The new study, which was published on April 12, 2009, in an advanced online edition of the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, draws new parallels between the Rad60 DNA repair factor and SUMO, a small ubiquitin-like modifier, which are both essential for maintaining genome stability during replication.

13 Apr 2009

Researchers explain process by which cells 'hide' potentially dangerous DNA segments

The DNA in the 23 pairs of chromosomes in each of the billions of cells of the human body is so tightly packed that it would measure six feet in length if stretched end to end.

12 Apr 2009

Scientists discover structure of a protein that makes cancer cells resistant to chemotherapy

A research team at the Scripps Research Institute has obtained the first glimpse of a protein that keeps certain substances, including many drugs, out of cells.

29 Mar 2009