Endless Forms Most Beautiful: Why Evolution Favors Symmetry
From sunflowers to starfish, symmetry appears everywhere in biology. This isn’t just true for body plans – the molecular machines keeping our cells alive are…
Molecular Biology News
After More Than 20 Years, Scientists Have Finally Solved the Full-Length Structure of a Janus Kinase
The breakthrough came on molecular biologist Christopher Garcia’s birthday. For more than 20 years, his team and others around the world had been chasing an…
Study Untangles Mitochondria – The Energy Powerhouse of Our Cells – To Reap Rewards of Exercise
New research has uncovered how mitochondria – the energy powerhouse of our cells implicated in devastating mitochondrial disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancers – respond…
Fast Emergence of New COVID Variants Due to Virus’ Capacity for Rapid Burst Evolution
New research led by the Doherty Institute has found the SARS-CoV-2 virus has the ability to momentarily accelerate its evolutionary pace, enabling variants to emerge…
Ancestors of Legionella Bacteria – Which Causes Legionnaires’ Disease – Infected Cells Two Billion Years Ago
Researchers at Uppsala University have discovered that the ancestors of legionella bacteria infected eukaryotic cells as early as two billion years ago. It happened soon…
Molecular Movie Reveals How To Get Chloride Ions Into the Cell
For the first time, a molecular movie has captured in detail the process of an anion transported across the cell membrane by a light-fuelled protein…
New Mosquito Vision Discovery Could Help You Hide From These Disease-Carrying Bloodsuckers
Mosquitoes are seeing red: These new findings about their vision could help you hide from these disease vectors. Beating the bite of mosquitoes this spring…
First Molecular Electronics Chip Developed – Realizes 50-Year-Old Goal
A platform for single-molecule measurement of binding kinetics & enzyme activity. The first molecular electronics chip has been developed, realizing a 50-year-old goal of integrating…
Key Molecule Identified That May Lead to New Treatments for COVID
Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering studies hope to find drugs that work against variants. Many treatments for COVID-19 focus on the spike protein that the…
Powerful New Superpower Molecule Could Revolutionize Science
When scientists discovered DNA and learned how to control it, not only science but society was revolutionized. Today researchers and the medical industry routinely create…
Scientists Homing In on a Cure for Parkinson’s Disease
A peptide known to prevent the protein error that gives rise to Parkinson’s disease has been optimized by scientists, making it a strong candidate for…
DNAzymes – How Active DNA Biocatalysts That Destroy Unwanted RNA Molecules Work
DNAzymes are precision biocatalysts that destroy unwanted RNA molecules. However, major obstacles to their use in medicine remain. Together with Jülich Research Centre (FZJ) and…
Catch Me if You Can: Scientists Discover How mRNA Therapeutics Are Delivered Into Cells
Researchers have found where and how mRNA arrives in a cell to modify or deliver genetic information, a crucial process for the development of novel…
New COVID Threat: Rodents Could Be Asymptomatic Carriers of SARS-Like Coronaviruses
Some ancestral rodents likely had repeated infections with SARS-like coronaviruses, leading them to acquire tolerance or resistance to the pathogens, according to new research publishing today…
Neutron Crystallography Takes a Deep Dive Into Water Networks Surrounding DNA
Water plays several important roles within the human body, even affecting the DNA in our cells. The entire surface of a DNA double helix is…
Clever Combination of Quantum Physics and Molecular Biology
Artificial intelligence affords unprecedented insights into how biomolecules work. A new analytical technique is able to provide hitherto unattainable insights into the extremely rapid dynamics…
New COVID-19 Biomarker Discovery – Can Predict Patient Death or Hospitalization
In a new study, researchers from University of Copenhagen show that the phenomenon cell fitness could predict the host immune response to a COVID-19-infection. The…
Rapid New Mechanism for Muscle Self-Repair Independent of Stem Cells
A new study led by Spanish researchers describes a new mechanism for muscle repair after physiological damage relying on the rearrangement of muscle fiber nuclei,…
