Exploring the limits of G protein-coupled receptors

How do signals from outside the cell cause a response inside it? Such outside signals could be hormones or neurotransmitters. To notice them, the cell's surface possesses receptors. One of the key classes of such receptors ...

Taste sensors keep proteins in order in flies

A set of genes that promote sweet taste sensation is also crucial for protein management during fly development, according to a new study by Eugenia Piddini of the University of Bristol, United Kingdom, and colleagues, publishing ...

How a shape-shifting receptor influences cell growth

Receptors found on cell surfaces bind to hormones, proteins, and other molecules, helping cells respond to their environment. MIT chemists have now discovered how one of these receptors changes its shape when it binds to ...

How cells navigate in messy environments

Your cells need to get around. For example, immune cells must roam around your body to locate sites of infection, and neurons must migrate to specific positions in the brain during development. But cells do not have eyes ...

Function follows form in plant immunity

Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research (MPIPZ) and the University of Cologne, Germany, have discovered a novel biochemical mechanism explaining how immune proteins defend plants against invading ...

DNA nanostructures for targeting cellular surface receptors

A broad subset of parameters, which include cell signaling modulation and receptor binding efficiency, can be explored using programmable DNA nanostructures. Glenn Cremers shows how these structures can uncover important ...

New tool reveals how immune cells find their targets

The human body has millions of unique B and T cells that roam the body, looking for microbial invaders. These immune cells' ability to recognize harmful microbes is critical to successfully fighting off infection.

New tool to accelerate drug discovery

Inside your body on the surface of cell membranes, a metaphorical communication and traffic network is underway as hormones—or chemical messengers—bind to cell membrane receptors to fine tune how the cell behaves. Once ...

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