Unraveling one of prion disease's deadly secrets

A molecular biologist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst who has for decades studied the nightmarish group of fatal diseases caused by prions—chronic wasting disease in deer, mad cow in cattle and its human analog—credits ...

Study reveals dynamics of crucial immune system proteins

Of the many marvels of the human immune system, the processing of antigens by the class I proteins of the major histocompatability complex (MHC-I) is among the most mind-boggling. Exactly how these proteins carry out their ...

Study demonstrates 'tunability' of a molecular chaperone

For decades, molecular biologists studying a class of molecular chaperones known as heat shock proteins (Hsp70s) have relied on the Hsp70s found in bacteria as the model system. Now one of the world's experts on the molecule ...

Chaperones can hold protein in non-equilibrium states

Chaperones are specialized proteins in the cell that help other proteins to reach their functional 3-D shapes, which correspond to the states preferred at thermodynamic equilibrium. But a new study by EPFL, UNIL and INSERM ...

Animals' mitochondria defenses discovered in plants

Mitochondria are cell organelles that play critical roles in maintaining the cell's health, or homeostasis. One way that mitochondria do this is by harvesting energy though oxidative phosphorylation, where various enzymes ...

Biochemists discover mechanism that helps flu viruses evolve

Influenza viruses mutate rapidly, which is why flu vaccines have to be redesigned every year. A new study from MIT sheds light on just how these viruses evolve so quickly, and offers a potential way to slow them down.

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