News tagged with membrane proteins
Speeding up drug discovery with rapid 3-D mapping of proteins
A new method for rapidly solving the three-dimensional structures of a special group of proteins, known as integral membrane proteins, may speed drug discovery by providing scientists with precise targets ...
May 30, 2012 |
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A cell's first steps: Building a model to explain how cells grow
A collaboration between Lehigh University physicists and University of Miami biologists addresses an important fundamental question in basic cell biology: How do living cells figure out when and where to grow?
May 18, 2012 |
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'Copper pump's' potential benefit in cancer treatment
(Phys.org) -- A team of University of California, San Diego researchers has made new discoveries about a copper-transporting protein in the membranes of human cells that drug-discovery scientists can co-opt ...
May 17, 2012 |
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Invention could help pharmaceutical industry save money
Two Michigan State University researchers have invented a protein purifier that could help pharmaceutical companies save time and money.
May 01, 2012 |
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Unusual protein helps regulate key cell communication pathway
Charged atoms, or ions, move through tiny pores, or channels, embedded in cell membranes, generating the electrical signals that allow cells to communicate with one another. In new research, scientists have ...
Apr 23, 2012 |
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Cell protein interactions favor fats
For cells to signal each other to carry out their vital work, could the cell membrane's lipids -- or fats -- play a role in buttering-up the process? A research group led by University of Illinois at Chicago chemistry professor ...
Mar 22, 2012 |
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LCLS offers new method for examining membrane proteins
Many membrane proteins serve as gateways in and out of the cell. Because they act as “traffic control” for infectious agents and disease-fighting drugs, they are the targets of more than 60 percent ...
Mar 15, 2012 |
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Optogenetic tool elucidated: Researchers explain channelrhodopsin
Controlling nerve cells with the aid of light: this is made possible by optogenetics. It enables, for example, the investigation of neurobiological processes with unprecedented spatial and temporal precision. The key tool ...
Feb 28, 2012 |
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Protein assassin: Scientists find that the unfolded end of a protein can kill E. coli-like bacteria selectively
When bacteria wage a turf war, some of the combatants have an extra weapon. Certain strains of the bacteria E. coli produce proteins that kill competing E. coli and other like microbes, and researchers from Newcastle Uni ...
Feb 23, 2012 |
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Big, bad bacterium is an 'iron pirate'
(PhysOrg.com) -- Life inside the human body sometimes looks like life on the high seas in the 1600s, when pirates hijacked foreign vessels in search of precious metals.
Feb 21, 2012 |
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No entry without protein recycling: Researchers discover new coherence in enzyme transport
The group of Prof. Dr. Ralf Erdmann at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany, discovered a connection of peroxisomal protein import and receptor export. In the Journal of Biological Chemistry, they disclo ...
Feb 10, 2012 |
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Decoding the molecular machine behind E. coli and cholera
Scientists from Queen Mary, University of London have discovered the workings behind some of the bacteria that kill hundreds of thousands every year, possibly paving the way for new antibiotics that could treat infections ...
Feb 09, 2012 |
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The secret life of proteins: Researchers discover dual role of key player in immune system
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine researchers have identified a new and unusual role for a key player in the human immune system. A protein initially believed to regulate one routine function within the ...
Jan 28, 2012 |
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Membrane fusion a mystery no more
The many factors that contribute to how cells communicate and function at the most basic level are still not fully understood, but researchers at Baylor College of Medicine have uncovered a mechanism that helps explain how ...
Jan 24, 2012 |
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Unveiling malaria's 'invisibility cloak'
The discovery by researchers from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of a molecule that is key to malaria's 'invisibility cloak' will help to better understand how the parasite causes disease and escapes from the defenses ...
Jan 18, 2012 |
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Membrane protein
A membrane protein is a protein molecule that is attached to, or associated with the membrane of a cell or an organelle. More than half of all proteins interact with membranes.
Biological membranes consist of a phospholipid bilayer and a variety of proteins that accomplish vital biological functions. Structural proteins are attached to microfilaments in the cytoskeleton which ensures stability of the cell. Cell recognition proteins allow cells to identify each other and interact. Such proteins are involved in immune response, for example. Membrane enzymes produce a variety of substances essential for cell function. Membrane receptor proteins serve as connection between the cell's internal and external environments. Finally, transport proteins play an important role in the maintenance of concentrations of ions. These transport proteins come in two forms: carrier proteins and channel proteins. Carrier proteins are involved in using the energy released from ATP being broken down to facilitate active transport and ion exchange. These processes ensure that useful substances are able to enter the cell and that toxic substances are pumped out of the cell.
For more information about Membrane protein, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
