Egg cell maintenance: Long-lived proteins may be essential

New findings on female fertility

11-Jul-2024 - Female mammals – including humans – are born with all of their egg cells. Of a woman’s one to two million egg cells, about 400 mature before menopause and can be fertilized. Some egg cells therefore survive for several decades – and need to remain functional over this long time. Extremely ...

From thousands of hours to a few minutes: Software Speeds Up Drug Development

Researchers develop novel method to predict the morphology of sugar coats on clinically relevant proteins within minutes

05-Mar-2024 - Sugars cover nearly all proteins present at the surface of the cells in our bodies, forming a shield around the proteins. Thus, these sugars influence how cells interact with their environment including pathogens, playing an important role in medical drug development. GlycoSHIELD, a new ...

New way to force pathogenic proteins into degradation

Researchers develop novel cancer protein killer and discover a new ligase for PROTACs

13-Dec-2023 - Most diseases are caused by proteins that have spun out of control. Unfortunately, so far, conventional drugs have been able to stop only a fraction of these troublemakers. A new class of drugs known as PROTACs holds great promise in pharmaceutical research. They mark proteins for targeted ...

Deciphering the secrets of spinal cord regeneration protein by protein

"With this understanding, we hope to develop new therapeutic approaches for spinal cord injury in humans in the future"

14-Nov-2023 - Scientists have long sought to understand how certain animals, such as zebrafish, are able to regrow nerve fibers and regain lost motor function after spinal cord injury. In humans, these injuries are irreparable and result in permanent loss of function, such as paralysis. An international team ...

Small protein, big impact

A small protein acts as a sensitive alarm for bacteria to be alert to antimicrobial peptides

16-Oct-2023 - Nature uses antimicrobial peptides as broad-spectrum antibiotics: They form the first line of defense against invading pathogens. Bacteria, in turn, have developed ways to circumvent these defenses. Microbiologists at the Max Planck Institute in Marburg have investigated how a small protein ...

New "radar" detects active cellular destroyers

Study provide an unprecedented look at the actors involved in the dynamic changes of our protein balance

04-Sep-2023 - Our cells have a fleet of 300 molecular machines, called cullin-RING ligases, or "CRLs" for short, that each is capable of triggering destruction of specific proteins for the well-being of our cells. However, most proteins are needed, therefore only those that block newly required cellular paths ...

Viruses glue RNA to proteins

21-Aug-2023 - Until now, RNA and proteins were thought to interact only briefly during cellular processes. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg, Germany, have discovered that this is not the case. During their developmental cycle, bacterial viruses `glue` specific ...

Wiggly proteins guard the genome

Dynamic network in the pores of the nuclear envelope blocks dangerous invaders

03-May-2023 - Tiny pores in the cell nucleus play an essential role for healthy aging by protecting and preserving the genetic material. A team in Germany from the Department of Theoretical Biophysics at the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics in Frankfurt am Main and the Synthetic Biophysics of Protein ...

The Paradox of Thrombosis

18-Apr-2023 - Bears in hibernation and also paraplegic people spend months or even years lying almost motionless. In healthy people, however, bedriddenness is always accompanied by the risk of thrombosis. A paradox, but nevertheless an everyday occurrence. This contradiction has now been investigated by an ...

Protein droplets may cause many types of genetic disease

Malfunction of cellular condensates is a disease mechanism relevant for congenital malformations, common diseases, and cancer

10-Feb-2023 - Most proteins localize to distinct protein-rich droplets in cells, also known as “cellular condensates”. Such proteins contain sequence features that function as address labels, telling the protein which condensate to move into. When the labels get screwed up, proteins may end up in the wrong ...