Laboratory cell experiments and computer simulations have revealed molecular mechanisms regulating a protein channel responsible for transporting chloride and other charged molecules across cell membranes. The findings were ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Dec 16, 2020
0
18
MIT chemists have determined the molecular structure of a protein found in the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This protein, called the envelope protein E, forms a cation-selective channel and plays a key role in the virus's ability to ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Nov 12, 2020
0
202
Plants have a unique ability to safeguard themselves against pathogens by closing their pores—but until now, no one knew quite how they did it. Scientists have known that a flood of calcium into the cells surrounding the ...
Plants & Animals
Aug 26, 2020
2
336
Ion channels and membrane transporters are in the business of moving ions and small molecules across cellular membranes. They are essential for metabolic and cellular homeostasis, and for a host of biological signaling pathways.
Cell & Microbiology
Jun 29, 2020
0
7
A study has solved a long-standing debate about the transport of essential proteins, implicated in many human diseases, through one of the cell's most complex and sophisticated structures.
Molecular & Computational biology
May 4, 2020
0
255
"Distance keeping" is not exactly the motto of the glutamate receptors: Using high-resolution microscopy, researchers have discovered that the receptors usually appear in small groups at the synapses and are in contact with ...
Biotechnology
Apr 16, 2020
0
19
Even though they don't have conventional noses, insects have adapted to smell odors in nearly every imaginable niche. Mosquitoes find us by our odor molecules binding to odor receptors on their antennae, bees are drawn to ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 18, 2020
0
6
To address the receptor dysfunction associated with several serious neurological diseases, Michaela Jansen, Pharm.D., Ph.D., from the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine recently completed a study ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Feb 4, 2020
0
8
A team of MIT chemists has discovered the structure of a key influenza protein, a finding that could help researchers design drugs that block the protein and prevent the virus from spreading.
Molecular & Computational biology
Feb 3, 2020
2
301
Cholesterol is crucial to the formation of the cell membranes of mammals and is part of many life processes. One of the most controversial concepts in biophysics is the hypothesis of the so-called lipid rafts: areas of high ...
Bio & Medicine
Jan 27, 2020
0
11
