They say you can't judge a book by its cover. But the human immune system does just that when it comes to finding and attacking harmful microbes such as the coronavirus. It relies on being able to recognize foreign intruders ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Jun 13, 2020
0
814
Plants lack eyes and ears, but they can still see, hear, smell and respond to environmental cues and dangers—especially to virulent pathogens. They do this with the aid of hundreds of membrane proteins that can sense microbes ...
Plants & Animals
Jan 19, 2018
0
1870
Nanoengineers at the University of California San Diego have developed immune cell-mimicking nanoparticles that target inflammation in the lungs and deliver drugs directly where they're needed. As a proof of concept, the ...
Bio & Medicine
Jun 16, 2021
0
1306
When an egg cell of almost any sexually reproducing species is fertilized, it sets off a series of waves that ripple across the egg's surface. These waves are produced by billions of activated proteins that surge through ...
General Physics
Mar 23, 2020
1
6720
Electrons spin. It's a fundamental part of their existence. Some spin "up" while others spin "down." Scientists have known this for about a century, thanks to quantum physics.
Condensed Matter
Mar 6, 2020
0
675
Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center, working with their collaborators at the Hospital for Special Surgery, have created a fleet of molecular "robots" that can home in on specific human cells and mark them for ...
Bio & Medicine
Aug 7, 2013
0
0
A team of researchers working at Germany's Technische Universität Braunschweig has succeeded in using a previously known DNA origami construction technique to build a nanoantenna with a docking site. First published in the ...
A new study, involving the University of Cambridge and led by the Pirbright Institute, has identified key genetic changes in SARS-CoV-2—the virus that causes COVID-19—that may be responsible for the jump from bats to ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jan 11, 2021
6
243
Electrons spin. It's a fundamental part of their existence. Some spin "up" while others spin "down." Scientists have known this for about a century, thanks to quantum physics.
Biochemistry
Jul 10, 2020
0
383
During early encounters between a pathogen and a cell, receptors located on the cell surface, in the cytosol or within endosomal (storage) compartments engage with the pathogen's nucleic acid (DNA/RNA) or pathogen-associated ...
