Molecular & Structural Biology

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Musical pleasure linked to right combination of uncertainty and surprise

Why is it that people find songs such as James Taylor's "Country Roads," UB40's "Red, Red Wine," or The Beatles' "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" so irresistibly enjoyable? In a study reported in the journal Current Biology on November 7, researchers analyze 80,000 chords in 745 classic U.S. Billboard pop songs--including those three--and find that musical pleasure comes from the right combination of uncertainty and surprise.

8 Nov 2019

Humans can have normal olfaction without typical olfactory bulbs

Our sense of smell depends on the transmission of olfactory information from the nose to the olfactory bulb in the brain through the olfactory nerve. And without olfactory bulbs, smell isn't possible--or so scientists thought.

8 Nov 2019

Understanding Monoclonal Antibody Unfolding and Aggregation

A therapeutic monoclonal antibody and its Fab and Fc fragments were recently investigated using differential scanning fluorimetry, temperature-ramped dynamic light scattering, and turbidity measurements.

From Waters | Wyatt Technology 8 Nov 2019

Researchers join forces to adapt novel genetic tool for zoonotic Chlamydia

The human pathogenic bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis is the most common sexually transmitted bacterial pathogen worldwide.

7 Nov 2019

UVA scientists develop a better way to determine what our genes do

Scientists at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have developed a better way to determine what our genes do – allowing scientists to better probe the genetic causes of diseases and more efficiently determine whether new drugs will act on the intended target exactly as needed.

7 Nov 2019

New study sheds light on how memories are formed

How does the brain translate information from the outside world into something we remember? An international team of researchers working in the Human Brain Project have zoomed in on the neuronal circuits in the striatum, a brain structure involved in memory, behavior and reward learning.

7 Nov 2019

Integrating European life sciences in the area of imaging

The European Commission has officially established Euro-BioImaging - which provides life scientists with open access to a broad range of technologies and resources in biological and biomedical imaging - as a European Research Infrastructure Consortium.

7 Nov 2019

NJIT professor receives Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award, joins circadian clock research project

Casey Diekman, associate professor of mathematics at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), has been named recipient of a prestigious Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program Award to the United Kingdom in Mathematical Biology.

6 Nov 2019

Using high-resolution X-ray analysis to solve structure of stress proteins from Staphylococcus

Project leader, Head of Structural Biology Lab Konstantin Usachev explains, One of the main factors favoring a microorganism's survival in extreme conditions is preserving ribosomes - a macromolecular complex comprising RNA and proteins.

6 Nov 2019

Scientists discover structure of novel RNA-modifying enzyme

RNA, or ribonucleic acid, is present in the cells of all living beings and required to synthesize proteins. A research team at the University of California, Riverside, has discovered the structure of a novel RNA-modifying enzyme, ZCCHC4, and identified the mechanism that controls how this enzyme recognizes its substrate.

6 Nov 2019

New imaging methods provide unprecedented close-up view of cilia linked to blindness

A new study published today by researchers from Baylor College of Medicine and UT Health's McGovern Medical School in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveals an unprecedented close-up view of cilia linked to blindness.

5 Nov 2019

Researchers find genes from 'fossil' virus in human DNA to be active

Genes from a virus that was stitched into the human genome thousands of years ago are active, producing proteins in the human brain and other tissues, according to researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine and the Laval University School of Medicine in Quebec, Canada.

5 Nov 2019

Scientists capture elusive cancer-related protein in action

Scientists have for the first time seen how the MYC protein, which plays a central role in cancer, binds to a key protein and controls important functions in the cell.

4 Nov 2019

Properties of spider silk proteins could be selectively modified to synthesize novel biomaterials

Spider silk consists of fiber-forming proteins, stored by the spider in a specialized gland. When the spider needs silk, for instance to build a web, it extrudes the silk proteins through a long duct in which they are exposed to specific mechanical and chemical influences and assembled to form silk.

4 Nov 2019

RCSB Protein Data Bank at Rutgers receives $34.5 million funding

The RCSB Protein Data Bank headquartered at Rutgers University-New Brunswick has been awarded $34.5 million in grants over five years from three U.S. government agencies.

4 Nov 2019

UI scientists are developing new delivery tools for gene editing

News of advances in gene-editing technology raises the prospect of actually using this approach to treat disease in patients. But one of the hurdles that remains is how to deliver these tools to the right cells in the patients safely and efficiently.

31 Oct 2019

Varied diets may be the cause for differences in human and non-human primate saliva

The study, published recently in Molecular Biology and Evolution, describes the discovery that human saliva is much more watery than the saliva of chimpanzees and gorillas.

31 Oct 2019

Study provides a first look into black box of embryonic development

Little is known about the molecular and cellular events that occur during early embryonic development in primate species.

31 Oct 2019

Mechanisms preserving cell identity are based on status of proteins housing DNA

The inheritance, not only of DNA, but of changes to proteins that package it, maintains the identity of cells as they multiply, a new study finds.

31 Oct 2019

Scientists identify protein that pulls the brake on nerve growth

During embryonic development, nerve cells form thin, long extensions, which they use to wire up a complex network, the brain. Scientists from the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases in Bonn have now identified a protein that regulates the growth of these extensions by pulling a brake.

31 Oct 2019