The goal of 'femtochemistry' is to film and control chemical reactions with short flashes of light. Using consecutive laser pulses, atomic bonds can be excited precisely and broken as desired. So far, this has been demonstrated ...
Condensed Matter
Jul 8, 2020
0
501
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 ...
Cell & Microbiology
Apr 28, 2020
6
501
Proteins are essential for every living cell and responsible for many fundamental processes. In particular, they are required as bio-catalysts in metabolism and for signaling inside the cell and between cells. Many diseases ...
Biochemistry
Sep 19, 2019
0
164
Around 635 to 720 million years ago, during Earth's most severe glacial period, the Earth was twice almost completely covered by ice, according to current hypotheses. The question of how life survived these "Snowball Earth' ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 1, 2019
0
187
Antibodies are indispensable in biological research and medical diagnostics. However, their production is time-consuming, expensive, and requires the use of many animals. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical ...
Bio & Medicine
Dec 21, 2017
0
58
Cancer cells are more dependent on a cellular garbage disposal unit—the proteasome—than healthy cells, and cancer therapies take advantage of this dependency. Scientists at EMBL and MPI determined the proteasome's 3D ...
Biochemistry
Aug 4, 2016
0
872
For a long time dismissed as "junk DNA", we now know that also the regions between the genes fulfil vital functions. Mutations in those DNA regions can severely impair development in humans and may lead to serious diseases ...
Biotechnology
Jun 2, 2016
0
23
To sustain life, processes in biological cells have to be strictly controlled both in time and in space. Research workers at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen and Freie Universität Berlin have ...
Cell & Microbiology
May 27, 2013
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0
When proteins get "out of shape", the consequences can be fatal. They lose their function and in some cases form insoluble, toxic clumps that damage other cells and can cause severe diseases such as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's. ...
Biochemistry
Feb 11, 2013
0
0
The plague, bacterial dysentery, and cholera have one thing in common: These dangerous diseases are caused by bacteria which infect their host using a sophisticated injection apparatus. Through needle-like structures, they ...
Cell & Microbiology
May 21, 2012
0
0
