https://phys.org/biology-news/molecular-computational/ en-us Medical Xpress provides the latest news on molecular and Computational biology The human body fights staph infections by starving it of essential nutrients. Staph, it turns out, is remarkably good at changing what's on the menu. Staphylococcus aureus—the infamous agent behind MRSA and most staph infections—needs sulfur to build proteins and other materials essential for survival. In a new Michigan State University study, published in the Journal of Bacteriology, researchers found the bacterium can adjust its diet depending on what sources remain available. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-bacteria-diet-survive-body.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 09 Sep 2026 16:50:01 EDT news708190502 University of Missouri researchers are paving the way as artificial intelligence transforms biomedical research. A team from the College of Engineering and collaborators recently published one of the most comprehensive reviews to date of an emerging AI approach for biology known as flow matching. The work, published in Nature Machine Intelligence, provides scientists around the world with a roadmap for applying the technology to accelerate drug discovery, precision medicine and other biomedical advances. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-ai-powered-biomedical-discoveries.html Biotechnology Wed, 09 Sep 2026 16:40:05 EDT news708177607 Cornell researchers have used artificial intelligence to uncover a previously unknown way cells control how proteins move inside them, a process essential for growth, communication and movement that is often disrupted in cancer. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-ai-reveals-class-cellular-linked.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 09 Sep 2026 14:20:03 EDT news708172501 Researchers have captured the moment two DNA molecules zip together, overcoming their identical negative charges to pair up and revealing a mechanism that has puzzled scientists for more than 20 years. Using high-powered atomic force microscopy, scientists at the University of Sheffield and the University of York directly imaged two DNA double helices locking together, marking the first time this fundamental biological process has been visualized. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-decades-dna-mystery-strands-captured.html Molecular & Computational biology Wed, 09 Sep 2026 13:40:10 EDT news708171781 More than two decades after scientists first sequenced the entire human genome—all 3 billion base pairs, of DNA code—the meaning of much of this code remains a mystery. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-ai-dna-evolution-secrets-human.html Evolution Wed, 09 Sep 2026 11:00:37 EDT news708167741 New research from Indiana University has uncovered a previously unknown vulnerability in how bacteria build the whip-like tails they use to move. The researchers found that building these tails can put stress on the protective wall surrounding a bacterial cell and uncovered systems bacteria use to keep that stress from becoming destructive. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-biologists-hidden-weak-bacteria-tails.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 09 Sep 2026 09:20:07 EDT news708162241 Bacteria can survive antibiotics in several ways, including by pumping the drugs out of their cells before they can take effect. Researchers at the University of Osaka have discovered a previously unknown mechanism that allows the bacterium responsible for many cases of pneumonia and meningitis to export the antibiotic fosfomycin. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-antibiotics-route-bacterial-drug-resistance.html Cell & Microbiology Tue, 08 Sep 2026 11:40:04 EDT news708080161 The human genome is about two meters (6.6 feet) long, yet it is folded inside a cell nucleus only about 10 micrometers in diameter. To fit into this tiny space, DNA is wrapped around histone proteins to form nucleosomes, which are further organized into chromatin. For decades, chromatin has often been described in two simple forms: euchromatin, which is active, open and accessible, and heterochromatin, which is more compact and repressed. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-super-resolution-imaging-reveals-cohesin.html Cell & Microbiology Tue, 08 Sep 2026 05:00:09 EDT news708012662 As an embryo develops from a small cluster of stem cells, those once "blank slate" cells begin to take on more specialized roles like brain, liver or muscle cells and organize themselves into three-dimensional structures such as tissues and organs. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-ai-decodes-cell-fingerprints-diverse.html Cell & Microbiology Tue, 08 Sep 2026 05:00:03 EDT news707993406 The findings of a new study led by the Leibniz-IZW on Namibian free-ranging cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus jubatus) demonstrate that epigenetic mechanisms might play an important role in how animals develop different phenotypes despite their low genetic diversity. The work is published in the journal Molecular Ecology. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-strays-territory-bosses-epigenetics-cheetahs.html Ecology Mon, 07 Sep 2026 16:40:05 EDT news708009301 The immune system is a highly sophisticated defense network designed to protect against pathogens. A research team from the Universities of Würzburg and Jena and the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology (Leibniz-HKI) has shown that certain components of the immune system can actually help the yeast Candida albicans evade immune attack. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-neutrophil-vesicles-candida-albicans-evade.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 07 Sep 2026 14:20:08 EDT news707998895 How do related proteins develop different functions? This is the question investigated by a research team involving Kiel University, DESY and the Center for Structural Systems Biology (CSSB). Led by Holger Sondermann, professor at Kiel University and head of the Structural Microbiology group at DESY, the researchers reconstructed the common ancestor of two bacterial enzymes and produced the long-extinct protein in the laboratory. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-reconstructed-ancient-protein-bacterial-enzymes.html Evolution Mon, 07 Sep 2026 10:40:04 EDT news707992561 Conformational changes in proteins are vital to their function yet remain challenging for state-of-the-art artificial intelligence, such as AlphaFold3, to predict. Researchers at the Institute for Molecular Science (IMS), and the Graduate University for Advanced Studies, SOKENDAI introduced a repulsive force between predicted structures, allowing AlphaFold3 to sample the multiple conformational states that its default settings rarely capture. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-alphafold-limits-proteins.html Biotechnology Sat, 05 Sep 2026 17:00:05 EDT news707472556 Gram-negative bacteria are responsible for several infections that are hard to treat because of their high resistance to antibiotics. These bacteria possess an outermost layer called the outer membrane that acts as a protective barrier. Serving as the cell's interface with the outside world, the outer membrane contains specialized proteins that perform multiple functions, such as nutrient transport and environmental sensing. The localization of these outer membrane proteins is achieved through the combined action of several key players, including the SurA chaperone and the β-barrel assembly machinery (BAM) complex. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-molecular-snapshots-reveal-bacteria-outer.html Cell & Microbiology Fri, 04 Sep 2026 05:00:03 EDT news707653216 When a patient's DNA is read, it is compared with a reference version of the human genome. This allows geneticists and rare disease experts to look at a list of places where the patient's DNA differs. Most variations will be harmless and shared with millions of other people, but some can cause illness. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-tools-rare-mutations-dangerous.html Biotechnology Thu, 03 Sep 2026 17:20:07 EDT news707660881 Potassium (K) is one of the three essential nutrients for plants. It plays a critical role in a wide range of processes, including cell growth, photosynthesis and regulation of water balance. Plants take up K from the soil and circulate it throughout their bodies via molecules called K+ channels. The function of one such K+ channel (called AKT5) in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana has remained a mystery, despite more than 30 years of study. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-green-thumb-molecule-leaf-stalks.html Molecular & Computational biology Thu, 03 Sep 2026 17:00:06 EDT news707660821 The enzymes found in modern organisms are complex proteins, often with multiple folded substructures and specialized catalytic sites. Proteins are encoded by genes. Tracing the history of enzymes across all living organisms through gene comparisons leads to the last universal common ancestor (LUCA), a hypothetical organism that existed around 4 billion years ago and is believed to be the ancestor of life forms on Earth. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-metabolic-networks-clues-earliest-stages.html Evolution Thu, 03 Sep 2026 13:40:03 EDT news707652681 Cells synthesize proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), and these proteins are transported to the Golgi apparatus for distribution to their ultimate destinations inside and outside the cell. The structures that transport proteins from the ER to the Golgi apparatus are called COPII vesicles; the processes that regulate the formation of COPII vesicles are only partially understood. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-stressed-cells-protein-shipping.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 03 Sep 2026 12:07:27 EDT news707656021 When researchers at HHMI's Janelia Research Campus set out to create a map of all the neurons in the fruit fly brain in 2008, many in the scientific community thought they were out of their minds. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-connectome-pursuing-fly-brain-rewired.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 03 Sep 2026 11:00:01 EDT news707563056 Scientists at UMass Chan Medical School and the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole have shown that the four core clock genes responsible for maintaining circadian rhythms in animals—Per, Cry2, Bmal1 and Clk—also regulate circatidal behavior in the crustacean P. hawaiensis. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-tiny-crustacean-scientists-genes-circatidal.html Plants & Animals Thu, 03 Sep 2026 10:40:01 EDT news707646781 As proteins are made in a cell, they are folded into the 3D structure that allows them to work, but sometimes this process can go wrong. When it does, the misfolded proteins lose some or all of their function and usually get tagged by the cell's quality assurance and maintenance crews, which try to repair the proteins or, if they can't, strip them to recycle their parts. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-cellular-maintenance-crew-misfolded-proteins.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 02 Sep 2026 19:20:03 EDT news707583482 A new study led by Francesca Storici, a professor in the School of Biological Sciences and faculty member of the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, has uncovered an unexpected feature of human DNA linked to gene activity and the physical organization of DNA. The findings, published in Cell, could change how scientists think about DNA organization, transcription and genome function. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-layer-human-genome-embedded-rna.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 02 Sep 2026 14:20:02 EDT news707571601 Why do some groups of organisms contain thousands of species while others have only a handful? Evolutionary biologists have spent decades trying to answer this question using mathematical models that estimate how biological traits and environmental factors influence the formation and extinction of species. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-biology-mathematics-hidden-symmetries-widely.html Evolution Wed, 02 Sep 2026 13:00:05 EDT news707565841 Scientists have long wondered how cells organized into sheets begin to move together to form organs, especially when the sheets form closed, sphere-like surfaces and tissues with no edges to direct motion. Researchers at the University of Chicago and UC San Diego used a combination of live imaging, genetic experiments and mathematical modeling to understand how cells in the fruit fly egg chamber synchronize their movement. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-cells.html Cell & Microbiology Wed, 02 Sep 2026 12:00:01 EDT news707561930 For decades, scientists have understood that each of the roughly 20,000 genes in the human body carries instructions for a single kind of protein. Now, researchers at Harvard Medical School have discovered that instructions from different genes—even those on different chromosomes—can combine to create chimeric mRNAs that produce previously unknown, functional proteins. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-mammalian-genes-combine-previously-unknown.html Biotechnology Wed, 02 Sep 2026 11:00:04 EDT news707559061 All known life on Earth uses the same genetic alphabet, consisting of four letters. Now, researchers at the University of California San Diego have demonstrated that one of biology's most essential enzymes can accurately read and transcribe an expanded, eight-letter genetic alphabet. The findings provide important evidence that cells can process synthetic genetic information using their natural molecular machinery, advancing a long-standing goal in synthetic biology to expand the language of DNA. It could also allow scientists to custom-engineer biological systems that perform functions or produce compounds not found in nature. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-letter-dna-alphabet-accurately-natural.html Biotechnology Wed, 02 Sep 2026 05:00:04 EDT news707401165 Researchers today announced AdaptiveFlow, an AI-informed platform that can virtually screen billions of drug-like molecules with a 1,000-fold reduction in computational costs over existing methods. Developed and validated by scientists from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, University of Pavia, Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, AdaptiveFlow allows prohibitively expensive ultra-large virtual drug screens to be conducted routinely. The open-source platform was published today in Nature Biotechnology. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-ai-adaptiveflow-redefines-large-scale.html Biotechnology Tue, 01 Sep 2026 17:00:07 EDT news707486977 The temporal structure of speech rhythms resembles that of the communication signals of numerous animal species. This is shown by a study conducted by a research team from the Leibniz Center for General Linguistics (ZAS) in Berlin, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, the University of Regensburg and the Institute for Advanced Studies at Aix-Marseille University. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-tune-nature-human-speech-rhythm.html Evolution Tue, 01 Sep 2026 15:40:03 EDT news707484422 Researchers at VIB, VUB and the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology (UK) have discovered a hidden feature of human sperm cells. Using advanced imaging technologies, they discovered specialized compartments within the sperm nucleus packed with proteasomes, which are responsible for breaking down and recycling proteins. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-hidden-protein-recycling-hubs-human.html Cell & Microbiology Tue, 01 Sep 2026 15:20:01 EDT news707483665 An international team of more than 100 scientists has taken a major step toward unlocking the secrets of some of Earth's tiniest but most important organisms. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-diatom-sequencing-genetic-differences-microscopic.html Cell & Microbiology Tue, 01 Sep 2026 14:00:09 EDT news707405161