http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org provides the latest news from European Molecular Biology Laboratory It is now easier to pinpoint exactly what molecules a phosphatase – a type of protein that's essential for cells to react to their environment – acts upon in human cells, thanks to the free online database DEPOD, created by EMBL scientists. Published today in Science Signaling, the overview of interactions could even help explain unforeseen side-effects of drugs. http://phys.org/news287740812.html Biology Tue, 14 May 2013 09:05:12 EST news287740812 (Phys.org) —Like musicians in an orchestra who have the same musical score but start and finish playing at different intervals, cells with the same genes start and finish transcribing them at different points in the genome. For the first time, researchers at EMBL have described the striking diversity of messenger RNAs (mRNAs) that such start and end variation produces, even from the simple genome of yeast cells. Their findings, published today in Nature, shed new light on the importance of mRNA boundaries in determining the functional potential of genes. http://phys.org/news286106031.html Biology Thu, 25 Apr 2013 10:54:01 EST news286106031 During embryo development, genes are dynamically, and very precisely, switched on and off to confer different properties to different cells and build a well-proportioned and healthy animal. Fgf8 is one of the key genes in this process, controlling in particular the growth of the limbs and the formation of the different regions of the brain. Researchers at EMBL have elucidated how Fgf8 in mammal embryos is, itself, controlled by a series of multiple, interdependent regulatory elements. Their findings, published today in Developmental Cell, shed new light on the importance of the genome structure for gene regulation. http://phys.org/news281276307.html Biology Thu, 28 Feb 2013 12:18:58 EST news281276307 Mature cells can be reprogrammed to pluripotency and thus regain the ability to divide and differentiate into specialized cell types. Although these so-called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) represent a milestone in stem cell research, many of the biochemical processes that underlie reprogramming are still not understood. Scientists from the EMBL Hamburg and from the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine in Münster, Germany now shed new light on this process. In a study published today in Nature Cell Biology, the scientists describe important details about the structure of the transcription factor Oct4, known to play a crucial role in the reprogramming of terminally differentiated cells. The study broadens the knowledge about the reprogramming of cells and may pave the way for medical applications in the field of regenerative medicine and drug discovery. http://phys.org/news279372747.html Biology Wed, 06 Feb 2013 11:32:36 EST news279372747 Researchers at the EMBL-European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) have created a way to store data in the form of DNA – a material that lasts for tens of thousands of years. The new method, published today in the journal Nature, makes it possible to store at least 100 million hours of high-definition video in about a cup of DNA. http://phys.org/news278165092.html Biology Wed, 23 Jan 2013 13:00:01 EST news278165092 This may look like yet another video of a dividing cell, but there's a catch. You are looking at chromosomes (red) being pulled apart by the mitotic spindle (green), but it's not a cell, because there's no cell membrane. Like a child sucking an egg out of its shell, Ivo Telley from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, removed these cellular 'innards' from a fruit fly embryo, at a stage when it is essentially a sac full of membrane-less 'cells' that divide and divide without building physical barriers to separate themselves from each other. http://phys.org/news277722298.html Biology Fri, 18 Jan 2013 09:05:04 EST news277722298 (Phys.org)—A research team of scientists from EMBL Grenoble and the IGBMC in Strasbourg, France, have, for the first time, described in molecular detail the architecture of the central scaffold of TFIID: the human protein complex essential for transcription from DNA to mRNA. The study, published today in Nature, opens new perspectives in the study of transcription and of the structure and mechanism of other large multi-protein assemblies involved in gene regulation. http://phys.org/news276770982.html Biology Mon, 07 Jan 2013 08:49:53 EST news276770982 (Phys.org)—From a single-cell egg to a fully functional body: as embryos develop and grow, they must form organs that are in proportion to the overall size of the embryo. The exact mechanism underlying this fundamental characteristic, called scaling, is still unclear. However, a team of researchers from EMBL Heidelberg is now one step closer to understanding it. They have discovered that scaling of the future vertebrae in a mouse embryo is controlled by how the expression of some specific genes oscillates, in a coordinated way, between neighbouring cells. Published today in Nature, their findings highlight how important this oscillatory pattern, and its regulation, is to ensure that embryos grow up to become well-proportioned animals. http://phys.org/news275223690.html Biology Thu, 20 Dec 2012 11:01:37 EST news275223690 (Phys.org)—In certain toy racecar tracks, sneaky players can flip a switch, trapping their opponents' vehicles in a loop of track. Cells employ a less subtle approach: they change the track's layout. In a study published online today in Science, scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and Oxford University discovered that, by forming or undoing gene loops, cells manipulate the path of the transcription machinery – which reads out instructions from DNA – controlling whether it moves along the genetic material in one direction or two. http://phys.org/news268049867.html Biology Fri, 28 Sep 2012 11:18:01 EST news268049867 (Phys.org)—It is much harder to keep up with a conversation in a crowded bar than in a quiet little café, but scientists wishing to eavesdrop on cells can now do so over the laboratory equivalent of a noisy room. A new method devised by scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in collaboration with the German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ), both in Heidelberg, Germany, provides a new approach for studying the proteins cells release to communicate with each other, react to changes, or even to help them move. Published online today in Nature Biotechnology, the work also opens new avenues for drug and biomarker screening. http://phys.org/news267701277.html Biology Mon, 24 Sep 2012 10:28:03 EST news267701277 Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, have combined the power of two kinds of microscope to produce a 3-dimensional movie of how cells 'swallow' nutrients and other molecules by engulfing them. The study, published today in Cell, is the first to follow changes in the shape of the cell's membrane and track proteins thought to influence those changes. It also provides ample data to investigate this essential process further. http://phys.org/news263207124.html Biology Fri, 03 Aug 2012 10:05:32 EST news263207124 What do you get when you dissect 10 000 fruit-fly larvae? A team of researchers led by the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in the UK and the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics (MPI) in Germany has discovered a way in which cells can adjust the activity of many different genes at once. Their findings, published in the journal Science, overturn commonly held views and reveal an important mechanism behind gender differences. http://phys.org/news261921875.html Biology Thu, 19 Jul 2012 14:00:09 EST news261921875 A traffic policeman standing at a busy intersection directing the flow of vehicles may be a rare sight these days, but a similar scene appears to still frequently play out in our cells. A protein called Lem4 directs a crucial step of cell division by preventing the progress of one molecule while waving another through, scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, have found. The study is published online today in Cell. http://phys.org/news260783739.html Biology Fri, 06 Jul 2012 08:55:49 EST news260783739 New microscope enabled scientists at EMBL Heidelberg to film a fruit fly embryo, in 3D, from when it was about two-and-a-half hours old until it walked away from the microscope as a larva. http://phys.org/news258024774.html Biology Mon, 04 Jun 2012 10:33:39 EST news258024774 Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, have for the first time uncovered the detailed structure of the shell that surrounds the genetic material of retroviruses, such as HIV, at a crucial and potentially vulnerable stage in their life cycle: when they are still being formed. The study, published online today in Nature, provides information on a part of the virus that may be a potential future drug target. http://phys.org/news258024717.html Biology Mon, 04 Jun 2012 10:32:13 EST news258024717