Related topics: protein · amino acids

Which population structures maximize evolutionary fitness?

Scientists at the Max Planck Institute in Plön have shown that population structures that enhance the effect of selection do not necessarily also lead to higher fitness. Instead, it is crucial for maximizing fitness that ...

Tiny sea creature's genes shed light on evolution of immunity

How a tiny marine invertebrate distinguishes its own cells from competitors' bears striking similarities to the human immune system, according to a new study led by University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine researchers.

The carp virus that taught researchers about immunology

One of the fascinating aspects of scientific research is certainly the serendipity that comes with it, which is something the team of Prof. Alain Vanderplasschen, virologist and immunologist at the FARAH (Faculty of Veterinary ...

Prions: New possible therapeutic target discovered

Prion diseases, such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy ("mad cow disease"), are lethal neurodegenerative infectious diseases that affect humans and other mammals and for which there is currently no cure.

The origin of life in an RNA pocket

This story begins several billion years ago. There's only chemistry, no biology—that is, plenty of chemical compounds exist on Earth, but life hasn't yet emerged. Then, among myriads of randomly self-assembled chemical ...

A new tool for cryo-electron microscopy

Researchers at Forschungszentrum Jülich and Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf led by Prof. Dr. Carsten Sachse are using cryo-electron microscopy, or cryo-EM for short, to make biomolecules visible at the atomic level. ...

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