Fatty acid factory filmed at work

High-resolution images provide new insights into cellular fatty acid production: Potential for medicine and biotechnology

15-Nov-2023 - Fatty acids are essential in all living organisms: to store energy, form membranes, and multiply. They are produced by a complex cellular machinery – the fatty acid synthase (FAS). A team of the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Multidisciplinary Sciences, led by Ashwin Chari and Holger Stark, have ...

Time-resolved crystallography for the masses

“The Spitrobot will greatly accelerate research in enzymatic mechanisms"

08-May-2023 - Scientists from four research institutes in the Science City Hamburg Bahrenfeld have joined forces to develop a ground-breaking experimental setup. Their new Spitrobot greatly simplifies observing changes in proteins as they carry out their functions. This makes time-resolved crystallography ...

Comparison of two nano rulers

Study compares two methods for distance measurement in motile proteins

08-Aug-2022 - In the Middle Ages, every city had its own system of measurement. Even today, you can sometimes find iron rods in marketplaces that determined the length measurement valid for the city at that time. In science, however, there is no room for such uncertainties, and no matter what method you use to ...

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 ...

Substantial differences between the tumor-promoting enzymes USP25 and USP28 identified

A new guide for cancer drugs

28-Mar-2019 - Researchers from the Rudolf Virchow Center of the University of Würzburg (JMU) have solved the structures of the cancer-promoting enzymes USP25 and USP28 and identified significant differences in their activities. Both enzymes promote the growth of various tumors. The results were published in ...

New diagnostic tool aids quality control in xenotransplantations

Bacterial protein recognises immunogenic sugar molecules on pig cells

05-Dec-2017 - Sugars are highly important molecules for all life. They convey vital signals, and thus participate in manifold biological processes (e.g. determination of blood-types and the formation of bacterial biofilms). Sugars are often recognized by specialized proteins called lectins. Researchers at the ...

The pyrenoid is a carbon-fixing liquid droplet

26-Sep-2017 - Plants and algae use the enzyme Rubisco to fix carbon dioxide, removing it from the atmosphere and converting it into biomass. However, Rubisco performs this reaction slowly and can also have unwanted reactions with oxygen. Algae have figured out a clever way to increase the efficiency of carbon ...

The battery compartments of the 26S Protein Recycling Machine

29-Jun-2016 - The degradation of proteins and the re-use of their basic building blocks is a process that is a matter of survival in cells. Researchers at the Max-Planck-Institute for Biochemistry present a detailed structure of the human protein recycling machine, the so-called 26S proteasome, in near-atomic ...

“Hairclip” protein mechanism explained

New study describes, for the first time, a fundamental mechanism regulating a protein’s shape

19-Dec-2014 - Research led by the Teichmann group on the Wellcome Genome Campus has identified a fundamental mechanism for controlling protein function. Published in Science, the discovery has wide-ranging implications for biotechnology and medicine.The shape of a protein determines its function, for example ...