http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Knowing how a living cell works means knowing how the chemistry inside the cell changes as the functions of the cell change. Protein phosphorylation, for example, controls everything from cell proliferation to differentiation to metabolism to signaling, and even programmed cell death (apoptosis), in cells from bacteria to humans. It's a chemical process that has long been intensively studied, not least in hopes of treating or eliminating a wide range of diseases. But until now the close-up view – watching phosphorylation at work on the molecular level as individual cells change over time – has been impossible without damaging the cells or interfering with the very processes that are being examined. http://phys.org/news255004871.html Chemistry Mon, 30 Apr 2012 12:20:01 EST news255004871 (Phys.org) -- How better to find out what effect ionizing radiation has on human skin than by using the real thing? Researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory did that by performing a quantitative mass spectrometry study on a reconstituted human skin tissue model to identify areas affected by ionizing radiation exposure. Their results suggest that even very low doses of ionizing radiation activate cell-signaling pathways, resulting in altered protein phosphorylation and possibly altered protein function. http://phys.org/news254474652.html Chemistry Tue, 24 Apr 2012 09:00:01 EST news254474652 In both plant and animal cells, protein activity is often regulated by phosphorylation, by which a phosphate group is added to one or more sites on a protein. A team led by Ken Shirasu of RIKEN Plant Science Center, Yokohama, Japan, has found very similar patterns of protein phosphorylation even in distantly related plant species, a discovery that should advance plant engineering. The data is now freely available online from RIKEN's new Plant Phosphoproteome Database. http://phys.org/news202395330.html Biology Mon, 30 Aug 2010 14:20:01 EST news202395330 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at the University of Dundee have discovered a protein that acts as a 'molecular scissors' to repair damaged DNA in our cells, a finding which could have major implications for cancer treatments. http://phys.org/news197902053.html Biology Fri, 09 Jul 2010 14:10:01 EST news197902053 Protein phosphorylation is a process by which proteins are flipped from one activation state to another. It is a crucial function for most living beings, since phosphorylation controls nearly every cellular process, including metabolism, gene transcription, cell-cycle progression, cytoskeletal rearrangement and cell movement. http://phys.org/news188652553.html Biology Wed, 24 Mar 2010 12:29:33 EST news188652553 Investigators at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham) and The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have made the first comparative, large-scale phosphoproteomic analysis of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and their differentiated derivatives. The data may help stem cell researchers understand the mechanisms that determine whether stem cells divide or differentiate, what types of cells they become and how to control those complex mechanisms to facilitate development of new therapies. The study was published in the August 6 issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell. http://phys.org/news168786097.html Biology Thu, 06 Aug 2009 14:02:00 EST news168786097