https://phys.org/biology-news/molecular-computational/ en-us Medical Xpress provides the latest news on molecular and Computational biology Lipid research investigates the structure, function and metabolism of fats, covering their roles in industrial processes, the environment and health. Emerging research areas include nutrient regulation, cardiovascular health, lipidomics and biomarker discovery to understand, prevent or treat malfunction in diverse settings. An initiative led by Flinders University is building links between researchers, clinicians and industry professionals working across the diverse and rapidly evolving field of lipid science. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-free-online-lipid-network-aims.html Molecular & Computational biology Mon, 13 Apr 2026 22:40:01 EDT news695289482 A research team has discovered an enhanced CRISPR gene-editing system that could enable targeted delivery inside the human body—a key step toward broader clinical use. Researchers identified a naturally occurring enzyme, Al3Cas12f, that is small enough to fit into adeno-associated virus vectors, a leading targeted delivery method for gene therapies. They then engineered an enhanced version that dramatically improved gene-editing performance in human cells. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-compact-crispr-body-gene-efficiency.html Biotechnology Mon, 13 Apr 2026 19:20:02 EDT news695313181 Cells can be thought of as cities, with factories, a transport system, and lots of building activity. An international team led by scientists at the University of Groningen studied cells growing under different conditions and measured the speed of molecule transport. They found that some conditions led to changes in the mobility inside the cells, caused by the clustering of proteins that produce the building materials for growth. It could be that clustering enables the proteins to produce those building blocks more efficiently. The research is published in the journal Molecular Cell. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-protein-clusters-reshape-cell-movement.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 13 Apr 2026 19:10:01 EDT news695318641 Scientists at the VIB–VUB Center for Structural Biology have uncovered a counterintuitive principle that could reshape how membrane proteins are designed from scratch: Sometimes, making a protein less stable helps it fold correctly. In their study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers demonstrate that introducing carefully placed "imperfections," a strategy known as negative design, enables synthetic membrane proteins to fold and assemble efficiently in artificial membranes. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-membrane-proteins-embracing-imperfection.html Biotechnology Mon, 13 Apr 2026 18:40:01 EDT news695312581 Light has long been known to regulate plant growth. New research from Osaka Metropolitan University has discovered a new mechanism behind this regulation. A team led by Professor Kouichi Soga of the Graduate School of Science used a unique method to measure adhesion between the epidermal (the outermost layer) and inner tissues in young pea stems. They found that those grown in light exhibit enhanced adhesion. The research is published in Physiologia Plantarum. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-tightens-young-pea-stems-revealing.html Molecular & Computational biology Mon, 13 Apr 2026 18:20:05 EDT news695296033 A specific cellular mechanism regulates the protein balance of plants, thereby influencing how they respond to environmental stress. An international research team led by Dr. Markus Wirtz at the Center for Organismal Studies of Heidelberg University has identified a particular protein complex that plays a key role in that process by dynamically controlling the degradation and recycling of proteins. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-protein-tagging-complex-stress-survival.html Plants & Animals Mon, 13 Apr 2026 17:30:01 EDT news695316782 Weill Cornell Medicine researchers have found that temporarily disabling a protein complex that organizes DNA into loops inside the cell's nucleus drastically disrupted the three-dimensional structure of the genome, but surprisingly, most genes continued to function as usual. However, they also discovered a small group of affected genes that play a critical role in guiding cells to become specific types, for example, heart, brain, or liver cells. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-disrupting-genome-architecture-impairs-developmental.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 13 Apr 2026 17:10:01 EDT news695316301 It has long been known that environmental conditions can shape how traits are inherited, a phenomenon known as transgenerational epigenetic inheritance. However, the molecular signals responsible for encoding this biological "memory" have remained largely unknown. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-vitamin-b12-inherited-behavioral-generations.html Evolution Mon, 13 Apr 2026 16:50:02 EDT news695315761 Isolating the first spark of life on Earth is a matter of biology, geology, and chemistry—but it's also an amazing math problem. At least, that's how Varun Varanasi viewed it when he was a Yale undergraduate. The question, in a nutshell, is this: How did the primordial soup of interacting molecules on the Earth's surface billions of years ago transform itself from complete chaos to an organized system of self-sustaining, reproducing chemicals? Did this occur gradually over millions of years, or was it abrupt? https://phys.org/news/2026-04-math-reveals-life-earth-primordial.html Molecular & Computational biology Mon, 13 Apr 2026 16:20:06 EDT news695314729 The wave-shaped chart Ratul Chowdhury pulls up on a computer monitor in his office captures the evolutionary cat-and-mouse game his research lab is up against. The undulating curves track variants of the porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) virus, which causes a swine disease that annually costs the global pork industry more than $1 billion—damage attributable in part to how quickly it adapts to escape from immune defenses. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-future-proofing-livestock-vaccines-viruses.html Molecular & Computational biology Mon, 13 Apr 2026 13:20:06 EDT news695300942 While stopped in heavy Melbourne traffic recently, I noticed that what looked like a shadow under a row of spotted gums (Corymbia maculata) along a major road was actually a stain on the concrete curb. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-river-cup-tea-secret-world.html Molecular & Computational biology Mon, 13 Apr 2026 08:40:03 EDT news695288221 Mutations in a key protein make a yeast found in dogs with common outer ear infections more resistant to the topical antifungals used to treat it, veterinarians and pathobiologists at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign found in a new study. The work is published in the journal Veterinary Dermatology. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-dogs-fungal-ear-infections-evade.html Molecular & Computational biology Sun, 12 Apr 2026 10:30:02 EDT news694861344 Engineered cells are a high-value genetic asset that is key to many fields, including biotechnology, medicine, aging, and stem cell research, with the global market projected to reach $8.0 trillion USD by 2035. Yet the only ways to keep the cells safe are strong locks and watchful guards. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-hackers-dna-encryption-cells.html Biotechnology Sat, 11 Apr 2026 15:00:05 EDT news694861783 At the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA), Jérémie Palacci's research group is venturing into metallurgy—albeit with a twist. Instead of traditional tools, the scientists use E. coli bacteria, often associated with infection linked to contaminated food. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-microbial-hockey-scientists-bacteria-rotate.html Cell & Microbiology Sat, 11 Apr 2026 10:00:03 EDT news694774202 Nicotine, a potent insecticidal alkaloid unique to the nightshade family, has been employed in agriculture as a pesticide since 1690. It also has therapeutic potential for neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and depression. Despite its profound influence on human history, agriculture, and plant evolution, however, the final steps of nicotine biosynthesis have remained unclear until now. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-nicotine-biosynthesis-wild-tobacco-mystery.html Plants & Animals Fri, 10 Apr 2026 19:20:01 EDT news695047138 We thought it was evolution, but an experiment with pencils shows that tips like teeth and thorns may owe their rounded shape to mechanical wear. Most of us have been stung by a bee, bitten by an animal, or scratched by a thorny bush. But very few of us have probably taken a close look at nature's painful, pointed tips. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-teeth-thorns-coincidences-universal-nature.html Evolution Fri, 10 Apr 2026 16:20:02 EDT news695033521 What if the Trojan horse had been pulled to pieces, revealing the ruse and fending off the invasion, just as it entered the gates of Troy? That's an apt description of a newly characterized bacterial defense system that chops up foreign DNA. Bacteria and the viruses that infect them, bacteriophages—phages for short—are ceaselessly at odds, with bacteria developing methods to protect themselves against phages that are constantly striving to overcome those safeguards. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-snipe-bacterial-defense-shreds-phage.html Cell & Microbiology Fri, 10 Apr 2026 16:00:10 EDT news695045401 Cases of Borna disease virus 1 (BoDV-1) are extremely rare in humans, but in those who develop disease, the outcome is severe, almost always resulting in fatal encephalitis or inflammation in the brain. This zoonotic virus belongs to the order Mononegavirales, which includes the lethal viruses responsible for Ebola virus disease, measles, and rabies. The nucleoprotein-RNA complex in these viruses protects its genomic RNA and supports viral RNA synthesis, so understanding the structure of this complex is essential to targeting viral replication. Structural characterization has been completed for several mononegavirus families that more commonly infect humans, but detailed information for the family Bornaviridae has not been sufficiently explored. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-unraveling-complexities-borna-disease-virus.html Molecular & Computational biology Fri, 10 Apr 2026 14:00:05 EDT news694965181 Intracellular transport is a vital process that allows cells to move proteins and other molecules to specific locations. This process is especially important in neurons, which have highly polarized structures with long extensions such as axons and dendrites. For neurons to function properly, proteins must be transported accurately to specific regions, such as the axon initial segment (AIS), a specialized site for initiating electrical signals. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-scientists-kinesin-motor-proteins-specific.html Cell & Microbiology Fri, 10 Apr 2026 14:00:03 EDT news695046361 Inspired by the collective dynamics of bacteria like E. coli and Bacillus subtilis, researchers at the University of Twente asked a simple but fundamental question: what happens when artificial swimmers are made rod-shaped rather than spherical, and how does shape control how they move as a group? "These dumb yet active rods follow only the laws of physics, which help to uncover the mechanics of collective bacterial behavior," says Hanumantha Rao Vutukuri. Their findings appear in Science. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-rod-synthetic-swimmers-reveal-sweet.html Cell & Microbiology Fri, 10 Apr 2026 13:00:03 EDT news695039161 All processes such as wound healing, hair growth, and the replacement of old cells with new ones depend on cell division. During this process, chromosomes inside the cell must be evenly divided between two daughter cells. Even slight errors can lead to cellular abnormalities. A research team at POSTECH (Pohang University of Science and Technology) has recently uncovered new clues suggesting that a protein called tau plays an important role in this highly regulated process. The findings were published in the journal Nature Communications. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-alzheimer-linked-protein-tau-plays.html Cell & Microbiology Fri, 10 Apr 2026 12:00:02 EDT news695035861 Living with friends may quietly be altering your gut bacteria, according to a new study from the University of East Anglia. Research on a colony of tiny island birds reveals they share more of their gut bacteria with the birds they spend the most time with. And the team says the same principle almost certainly applies to humans too. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-housemates-gut-bacteria-island-bird.html Ecology Fri, 10 Apr 2026 05:10:02 EDT news694973701 Professor Gyu Rie Lee of the Department of Biological Sciences successfully designed artificial proteins that selectively recognize specific compounds using AI through joint research with Professor David Baker. The research, published in the journal Nature Communications, is characterized by using AI to design proteins that recognize specific compounds from scratch (de novo) and implementing them as functional biosensors. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-ai-proteins-built-specific-compounds.html Biotechnology Thu, 09 Apr 2026 19:40:01 EDT news694958188 While precision seems critical for science, researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and Texas A&M University are embracing uncertainty, using it to fine-tune artificial intelligence (AI)-based molecular design models. The resulting models can generate molecules with better predicted properties than those offered by the original models. The work is featured on the February 2026 cover of Molecular Systems Design & Engineering. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-uncertainty-tool-ai-molecules.html Molecular & Computational biology Thu, 09 Apr 2026 18:20:04 EDT news694946605 University of Virginia School of Medicine scientists have developed a bold new approach to drug development and discovery that could dramatically accelerate the creation of new medicines. UVA's Nikolay V. Dokholyan, Ph.D., and colleagues have developed a suite of artificial intelligence-powered tools, called YuelDesign, YuelPocket and YuelBond, that work together to transform how new drugs are created. The centerpiece, YuelDesign, uses a cutting-edge form of AI called diffusion models to design new drug molecules tailored to fit their protein targets exactly, even accounting for the way proteins flex and shift shape during binding. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-ai-diffusion-tailor-drug-molecules.html Biotechnology Thu, 09 Apr 2026 17:00:06 EDT news694968241 DNA inside the nucleus is not packed as a rigid regular fiber—linker histone H1 dynamically binds and loosely "glues" nucleosomes together, creating a dynamic, fluid organization that can still support essential genome functions. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-liquid-histone-h1-nucleosomes-reshaping.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 09 Apr 2026 16:00:06 EDT news694967221 A team of scientists at The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), led by Nikos Vasilakis, Ph.D., and Peter McCaffrey, MD, has developed a new computational pipeline that could dramatically accelerate the development of vaccines against a group of mosquito-borne viruses known as alphavirus. Vasilakis is a professor and the vice chair for research, and McCaffrey is an assistant professor of clinical practice and director of the UTMB AI center, both in the Department of Pathology. The work was conducted in collaboration with the researchers' colleagues in Brazil and Panama. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-smarter-vaccines-scientists-harness-ai.html Molecular & Computational biology Thu, 09 Apr 2026 15:00:01 EDT news694959362 A research group has successfully determined, for the first time in the world, the capsid (outer shell) structure of Melbournevirus—a member of the giant virus family—at a resolution of 4.4 Å using cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM). The work is published in the journal Viruses. The team was led by Project Professor Kazuyoshi Murata at the Exploratory Research Center on Life and Living Systems (ExCELLS) / National Institute for Physiological Sciences (NIPS), in collaboration with Senior Researcher Kenta Okamoto at Uppsala University and Professor Chantal Abergel at Aix-Marseille University. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-giant-virus-gave-atomic-blueprint.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 09 Apr 2026 14:20:12 EDT news694953722 Like most bacteria, Vibrio cholerae lives under constant attack from viruses. To survive, bacteria equip themselves with antiviral immune systems. Previous work has shown that V. cholerae carries a large genetic element called a sedentary chromosomal integron (SCI). This structure contains hundreds of small mobile DNA units known as "gene cassettes" arranged in a long array, like a chain of pearls. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-phages-cholerae-neighbors-swap-defenses.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 09 Apr 2026 14:00:10 EDT news694879321 Some animals can regrow lost body parts. Salamanders and frog tadpoles can rebuild entire limbs after amputation. Mammals cannot. For decades, biologists have tried to understand why. Now a team led by Can Aztekin at EPFL (now at the Friedrich Miescher Laboratory of the Max Planck Society) has discovered that oxygen plays a crucial role in limb regeneration. By comparing amputated limbs from frog tadpoles and embryonic mice, the researchers found that the way cells sense oxygen determines whether regeneration can even begin. The study is published in Science. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-oxygen-amphibians-regenerate-limbs-mammals.html Plants & Animals Thu, 09 Apr 2026 14:00:01 EDT news694880761