https://phys.org/biology-news/molecular-computational/ en-us Medical Xpress provides the latest news on molecular and Computational biology Researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev have identified simple rules that explain how complex protein structures assemble correctly and remain functional over time, despite having many theoretically possible configurations. The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, focuses on bacterioferritin, a bacterial protein complex responsible for safely storing iron. Unlike simpler protein assemblies made of identical parts, many bacterioferritins are built from two different types of subunits, each with a distinct role. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-simple-proteins-evolve.html Evolution Tue, 14 Apr 2026 17:40:06 EDT news695395621 The CRISPR-Cas gene-editing system has long been the focus of research as a promising tool in genome editing. However, the emphasis has been on its underlying mechanisms and nucleases. In contrast, little research has examined how CRISPR-Cas systems have evolved and been optimized. In collaboration with the universities of Leipzig, Freiburg, and Michigan (U.S.), a research team at the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI) in Würzburg found an optimization mechanism in CRISPR-Cas13, providing insights into the evolution of these systems. The results were recently published in The EMBO Journal. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-built-hairpin-mechanism-crispr-cas13.html Evolution Tue, 14 Apr 2026 15:40:06 EDT news695388602 Parasites are a major global health problem, underlying many human diseases worldwide. For example, Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite responsible for malaria, plays a well-established role; however, its complex life cycle is not yet fully understood. This includes how parasites exit the infected host cells, known as "egress." https://phys.org/news/2026-04-parasites-host-cells-mic11-exposing.html Cell & Microbiology Tue, 14 Apr 2026 14:00:04 EDT news695385781 Life moves in mysterious ways—and perhaps especially so for organisms that undergo dramatic shifts in levels of self-organization, such as Myxococcus xanthus. A custom-built artificial intelligence system developed by Rice University researchers helped uncover how bacterial communities organize themselves, showing that the earliest moments of a biological transition carry far more information than previously considered. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-ai-hidden-behavior-patterns-bacteria.html Cell & Microbiology Tue, 14 Apr 2026 10:20:09 EDT news695376302 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 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 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 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 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 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 Sometimes, different organisms can evolve the same ability independently, a process called parallel evolution. A new study from Osaka Metropolitan University (OMU) has found that dragonflies sense red light similarly to mammals, including humans. The findings were published in Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-dragonflies-humans-red-wavelengths-nm.html Evolution Thu, 09 Apr 2026 10:20:05 EDT news694946676 Researchers at Bar-Ilan University have discovered that changing just one letter in DNA can completely alter sex development in mice. In the new study, published in Nature Communications, a single-letter insertion in a non-coding regulatory region caused XX mice, which would normally develop as females, to develop instead as males with testis and male genitalia. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-dna-letter-trigger-sex-reversal.html Molecular & Computational biology Thu, 09 Apr 2026 05:00:01 EDT news694794661 Every day, fish caught in oceans and seas around the world pass through a long journey before reaching supermarkets, restaurants, and home kitchens. Along the way, their freshness steadily declines, often in ways that are difficult to detect. Now imagine being able to measure how fresh a fish is at any point along this journey. Researchers at Hokkaido University have developed a mathematical model that can do exactly this. The latest development could help reduce food waste and improve seafood quality. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-mathematical-fish-freshness-real.html Molecular & Computational biology Wed, 08 Apr 2026 18:50:01 EDT news694887121 A specific protein controls mRNA transport in fungi and distinguishes important from unimportant binding sites in the transported mRNAs. Researchers from Würzburg and Düsseldorf have discovered this mechanism. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-sites-fungal-vesicle-hitchhiking-mrna.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 08 Apr 2026 18:20:05 EDT news694878601