In creation of cellular protein factories, less is sometimes more

Ribosomes are the cellular machines that make proteins, the molecules that carry out the majority of life's functions. To make ribosomes, cells need to make an abundance of amino acids (the raw material of proteins) and adenosine ...

Cells use water in nano-rotors to power energy conversion

Researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics in Frankfurt, and Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York have provided the first atomic-level glimpse of the proton-driven motor from a major group of ATP synthases, ...

The powerhouse of the future: Artificial cells

Energy production in nature is the responsibility of chloroplasts and mitochondria and is crucial for fabricating sustainable, synthetic cells in the lab. Mitochondria are not only "the powerhouses of the cell," as the middle ...

Protein dynamics: Molecular machines at work

Researchers from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich have used a special fluorescence-based imaging technique to track the shape changes that occur when pore proteins in the cell membrane export molecules into ...

'Plant cinema' shows the flow of energy

Nothing works without fuel: plants also depend on fuel for growth and development. In living organisms, fuel comes as the universal energy currency adenosine triphosphate (ATP). An international team of researchers led by ...

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