Approval of first RNA interference drug – why the excitement?

Small interfering RNA sounds like something from a science fiction novel rather than a revolutionary type of medicine. But this odd-sounding new drug offers a novel strategy for treating disease by targeting the root cause ...

Watching nanoscale assembly live

Ebola virus, Alzheimer's amyloid fibrils, tissue collagen scaffolds and cellular cytoskeleton are all filamentous structures that spontaneously assemble from individual proteins.

Scientists shine new light on heat-damaged hair

A new technique allowed researchers to observe in greater detail how heat alters keratin proteins, helping in their search for ingredients that can prevent heat-damaged hair.

Cholesterol helps flu virus escape through host cell's membrane

After a flu virus infects a host cell and hijacks its inner workings to create copies of itself, these copies gather into viral buds that break free from the host cell to infect again. A new study from MIT now provides the ...

Novel role of protein in generating amyloid-beta peptide

A defining hallmark of Alzheimer's disease is the accumulation of the amyloid β protein (Aβ), otherwise known as "senile plaques," in the brain's cortex and hippocampus, where memory consolidation occurs. Researchers ...

Unlocking the secret(ase) of building neural circuits

Mutant presenilin is infamous for its role in the most aggressive form of Alzheimer's disease -- early-onset familial Alzheimer's -- which can strike people as early as their 30s. In their latest study, researchers at the ...

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