Molecular & Structural Biology

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Research could help design better flu vaccines

Each year millions of Americans become sick with the flu, hundreds of thousands are hospitalized and tens of thousands die. Getting the flu shot can reduce the chances of infection. But, at best, the vaccine is only effective 40% to 60% of the time, according to the CDC.

26 Nov 2019

Study shows how fiber spacing could control cell sticking

Researchers from the Mechanobiology Institute at the National University of Singapore have shown that cells can attach to the fibrous protein meshwork that surrounds them only if the fibers are spaced close enough.

26 Nov 2019

Discovery in C. difficile biology opens new window to developing treatments for dangerous infections

A process called sporulation that helps the dangerous bacterium Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) to survive inhospitable conditions and spread is regulated by epigenetics, factors that affect gene expression beyond the DNA genetic code, researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai report.

25 Nov 2019

Article reveals new mechanism of programmed aging

Nature has sentenced humans to an inevitable death from the time of birth; the natural instrument of execution is the aging process. According to modern scientific notions, only two root causes of aging can be: stochastic physiological damage or the implementation of a special genetic program in the body.

25 Nov 2019

Fetuses may be able to see more than previously believed

By the second trimester, long before a baby's eyes can see images, they can detect light.

25 Nov 2019

New highly sensitive test for dengue virus developed using DNA star

Researchers have developed a new method for detecting and destroying the dengue virus that could be adapted for other viruses.

25 Nov 2019

Scientists record assembly of ribosomes in real time

A team of scientists from Scripps Research and Stanford University has recorded in real time a key step in the assembly of ribosomes--the complex and evolutionarily ancient "molecular machines" that make proteins in cells and are essential for all life forms.

22 Nov 2019

DNA-modulated liquid droplets may explain how prion proteins clump

Researchers at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil, have identified that the interaction between prion proteins and DNA may be behind the formation of protein amyloid aggregates and of the emergence of neurodegenerative diseases such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and other spongiform encephalopathies.

22 Nov 2019

Scientists investigate the dynamics of molecular changes in gliomas

Until relatively recently, cancer was viewed as a single disease with sub-types based on where in the body it arose.

22 Nov 2019

Researchers develop breakthrough in marine sponge cell culture

Vertebrate, insect, and plant cell lines are important tools for research in many disciplines, including human health, evolutionary and developmental biology, agriculture and toxicology. Cell lines have been established for many organisms, including freshwater and terrestrial invertebrates.

21 Nov 2019

Neuroscientists decode how visual cues can reorganize the activity of compass neurons

If you've ever woken up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and stumbled around in the dark, banging into walls or dressers in a room you've walked through countless times, you've experienced the effects of inadequately calibrated neurons.

21 Nov 2019

Applying a Proteomics-based Approach to the Clinic

Matthias Mann explains why applying proteomics-based technologies such as timsTOF could accelerate the diagnosis and prediction of human disease.

From Bruker Life Sciences Mass Spectrometry 20 Nov 2019

New database helps identify therapeutic targets to fight infectious diseases

Infectious diseases are caused by pathogenic microorganisms capable of entering, colonizing and growing within a host organism, thus producing an infection. Bacterial infections have been on the rise worldwide in recent years, but many mechanisms underlying bacterial pathogenesis are still poorly understood.

19 Nov 2019

Scientists grow complex organoids in the lab

Scientists at the University of Würzburg have successfully produced human tissues from stem cells. They have a complexity similar to that of normal tissue and are far superior to previous structures.

19 Nov 2019

Research findings can be used in antiviral development against enterovirus infections

Despite their prevalence, there are no antivirals on the market against enteroviruses, and vaccines have been developed only against couple of serotypes. The production of vaccines against all enterovirus serotypes is not feasible, and so antiviral drugs may be the solution for most of the enterovirus infections.

19 Nov 2019