Molecular & Structural Biology

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Cryo-electron microscopy offers an unprecedented view of gene transcription

The enzyme RNA polymerase (RNAP) carries out transcription, copying DNA into RNA. It's the first step in gene expression, and a process fundamental to all life.

30 Apr 2026

Metabolic rewiring could help CAR-T cells fight solid tumors

This review explains how glucose scarcity, lipid disruption, amino acid deprivation, and toxic metabolites weaken CAR-T cells inside solid tumors. It highlights metabolic reprogramming as a promising strategy to improve CAR-T cell persistence, adaptability, and anti-tumor function.

29 Apr 2026

How multi-omics is changing what scientists can see in the human immune system

Human systems immunology is using multi-omics, single-cell tools, spatial technologies, and AI to decode immune responses across real-world human cohorts. The review highlights major opportunities for biomarker discovery and precision medicine, while stressing the need for rigorous study design, validation, and careful interpretation.

29 Apr 2026

Detailed images reveal DNA repair mechanism in cancer-related proteins

Scientists have captured the most detailed structural images to date of a specific type of protein's DNA repair process, a finding that could reveal ways to inhibit the effects of BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations that heighten the risk for breast, ovarian and other cancers.

28 Apr 2026

Detailed structure of Vibrio bacteria offers hope for new therapies

Scientists have mapped in unprecedented detail the structure of Vibrio bacteria, which can cause life-threatening infections linked to antibiotic resistance.

23 Apr 2026

Breast milk sugars promote beneficial bacterial balance in infant guts

Sugars contained exclusively in breast milk are helping to feed an important balance of bacteria in babies' developing gut microbiomes, a new study has found.

22 Apr 2026

Global proteomics data sharing grows fast as ProteomeXchange scales up

ProteomeXchange’s 2026 update shows that global proteomics data sharing continues to accelerate, with more than 64,000 datasets submitted and nearly half added in just the last three years. The paper also highlights how standards, reuse tools, and AI-ready resources are helping make mass spectrometry proteomics data more findable, accessible, and reusable.

20 Apr 2026

Proteomics and AI bring earlier risk prediction into sharper focus

This review examines how high-throughput proteomics is expanding precision medicine by improving biomarker discovery, disease prediction, and drug development. It also shows how AI is helping researchers interpret complex proteomic data while highlighting major barriers such as standardization, validation, and clinical translation.

19 Apr 2026

Why clinical proteomics faces a mass spectrometry vs. high-throughput profiling dilemma

This Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine review examines a central challenge in precision medicine: whether medical laboratories should prioritize metrologically sound, proteoform-resolving protein quantification by mass spectrometry or adopt scalable, affinity-based proteome profiling platforms built for high-throughput discovery and machine learning. It concludes that while emerging proteomics technologies expand diagnostic possibilities, careful validation, standardization, and quality assurance will be essential, with a hybrid path likely offering the most practical way forward.

19 Apr 2026

High-resolution study maps molecular differences across six human cortical regions

A new analysis of individual brain cells across several human brain regions reveals subtle but widespread differences in gene activity between male and female brains. This may help explain why some psychiatric and neurological disorders appear to affect the biological sexes differently, researchers report.

17 Apr 2026

Researchers use light-activated drugs to map the brain's internal painkillers

Placebo effects, in which patients experience relief without therapeutic treatment, increasingly have been considered as potentially powerful clinical treatments for ailments such as depression and pain. Yet the neurological mechanisms underlying such processes are not fully understood. Now, a multi-institutional team led by the University of California San Diego's Matthew Banghart, an associate professor in the School of Biological Sciences, has pinpointed the brain circuitry responsible for placebo pain relief.

17 Apr 2026

Understanding cell messaging provides a blueprint for targeting inaccessible tumors

Researchers at University College Dublin have discovered a previously unknown "courier system" that cells use to deliver coherent biological messages between each other, opening new possibilities for medicine and biotechnology.

16 Apr 2026

Researchers discover how stress signals weaken the aging immune system

As we age, our ability to maintain healthy blood and a strong immune system gradually declines, largely because hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), the cells responsible for producing all blood cell types, begin to lose their effectiveness. Normally, HSCs can both self-renew and generate a balanced mix of blood cells, but over time they produce fewer new cells, favor certain cells such as myeloid cells over lymphoid cells, and struggle to support a robust immune response.

16 Apr 2026

Study explains failure of cellular cleanup in neurodegenerative diseases

Inside every cell, a cleanup operation runs around the clock. Proteins are constantly damaged by wear and tear. Some can be repaired, while others must be dismantled and recycled.

15 Apr 2026

SPT Labtech and EMBL GeneCore collaborate to advance fully walkaway automation in genomics workflows

SPT Labtech, a global leader in the design and development of laboratory automation and liquid handling solutions, and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory's Genomics Core Facility (EMBL GeneCore), today announced a collaboration to advance fully walkaway automated genomics workflows.

From SPT Labtech 15 Apr 2026

New method boosts AI-driven protein engineering with massive data

Protein engineering is a field primed for artificial intelligence research. Each protein is made up of amino acids; to optimize a protein function, researchers modify proteins by switching out one of 20 different amino acids for another.

13 Apr 2026

How next-generation proteomics is decoding the language of life

This review examines how next-generation protein sequencing and analysis technologies are expanding proteomics beyond the limits of mass spectrometry, especially for detecting proteoforms and analyzing proteins at single-molecule resolution. It highlights maturing fluorescence-based and nanopore-based platforms that could complement existing methods and deepen insight into protein sequence, structure, function, and modification states.

13 Apr 2026

Protein complex cohesin found essential for guiding cell identity decisions

Temporarily disabling a protein complex that organizes DNA into loops inside the cell's nucleus drastically disrupted the three-dimensional structure of the genome, but surprisingly most genes continued to function as usual, Weill Cornell Medicine researchers found.

13 Apr 2026

Study uncovers key structure in fatal Borna disease virus 1

Cases of Borna disease virus 1, or BoDV-1, are extremely rare in humans, but in those who develop disease the outcome is severe, almost always resulting in fatal encephalitis or inflammation in the brain.

11 Apr 2026