How the ancient messengers cAMP and cGMP deliver their messages

Two highly similar molecules with essential but often contrasting signaling roles in most life forms exert their distinct effects through subtle differences in their bindings to their signaling partners, according to a new ...

New type of friction discovered in ligand-protein systems

An interdisciplinary research team of the Institutes of Physical Chemistry and Physics of the University of Freiburg and the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics in Frankfurt-am-Main has discovered a new, direction-dependent ...

Bacterial adhesion in vitro and in silico

Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) researchers in Munich, Germany, have characterized the physical mechanism that enables a widespread bacterial pathogen to adhere to the tissues of its human host.

Gauging the forces between cells

Cell-cell junctions are important for communication, transport, signalling, waste evacuation and water homeostasis. An European project has investigated how biophysical forces can influence the fulfilment of this vast range ...

Universal detector made of DNA building blocks

(PhysOrg.com) -- A method for detecting such diverse substances as antibiotics, narcotics and explosives - a universal detector, so to speak - has been developed by German researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer ...

New laser technique opens doors for drug discovery

A new laser technique has demonstrated that it can measure the interactions between proteins tangled in a cell's membrane and a variety of other biological molecules. These extremely difficult measurements can aid the process ...