New insights on how bird flu crosses the species barrier

How a key avian influenza virus enzyme can mutate to allow the virus to replicate in mammals

21-Aug-2024 - In recent years, public health measures, surveillance, and vaccination have helped bring about significant progress in reducing the impact of seasonal flu epidemics, caused by human influenza viruses A and B. However, a possible outbreak of avian influenza A (commonly known as ‘bird flu’) in ...

Interaction between metabolic health and healthy aging supported

“It was very exciting for us to discover a longevity intervention that is effective in late life"

15-Mar-2024 - New findings on the role of RNA Polymerase I in longevity and metabolic health - excessive protein synthesis shortens lifespan - connection between energy metabolism and cancer risk. Ribosomes, the "translation factories" of the cell, are cellular organelles that play a central role in protein ...

Researchers design a pulsing nanomotor

Machine measures just one ten-thousandth of a millimeter: An alphabet soup serves as fuel

23-Oct-2023 - An international team of scientists headed by the University of Bonn has developed a novel type of nanomotor. It is driven by a clever mechanism and can perform pulsing movements. The researchers are now planning to fit it with a coupling and install it as a drive in complex machines. Their ...

How cells age: genes are read faster but less accurately with age

Slowing down RNA polymerase II extends lifespan and improves health

25-Jul-2023 - The genome of all living organisms contains information for the production of cell components, i.e. the proteins, which are necessary for the maintenance of cell function. An important step in the process of protein production is the reading and copying of this information from the genes, ...

A building block for liver fitness in old age

Researchers discover cellular protection against epigenetic changes

14-Sep-2022 - The liver can regenerate even in old age and remains surprisingly fit, even though the chromatin in its cells undergoes major remodeling due to epigenetic changes, as researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing in Cologne have now discovered. One possible reason why the ...

Obstacles on the racetrack of life

New picture of the transcription

19-Jul-2021 - mRNA plays a key role in the conversion of genetic information from DNA to proteins. Their production is a delicate process. A research team at the University of Würzburg has now identified a crucial factor. The corona pandemic has ensured that the term "mRNA" is now also known to a large public ...

Why remdesivir does not fully stop the coronavirus

15-Jan-2021 - Remdesivir is the first drug against Covid-19 to be conditionally approved in Europe and the United States. The drug is designed to suppress the rapid replication of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in human cells by blocking the viral copying machine, called RNA polymerase. Researchers at the Max Planck ...

How the coronavirus multiplies its genetic material

Researchers solve structure of viral copy machine

30-Apr-2020 - When someone becomes infected with the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, the pathogen proliferates rapidly in the cells of the infected person. To do so, the virus has to multiply its genetic material, which consists of a single long RNA strand. This task is performed by the viral “copy machine”, the ...

Virus multiplication in 3D

16-Dec-2019 - Vaccinia viruses serve as a vaccine against human smallpox and as the basis of new cancer therapies. Two studies now provide fascinating insights into their unusual propagation strategy at the atomic level. For viruses to multiply, they usually need the support of the cells they infect. In many ...

Cell growth regulates genetic circuits

Max Planck researchers discover an explanation for different growth rates of genetically identically cells

04-Feb-2010 - Genetic circuits control the activity of genes and thereby the function of cells and organisms. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam and the University of California at San Diego have shown how various genetic circuits in bacterial cells are influenced by ...