Actin 'avalanches' may make memories stick

If you're on skis, you want to avoid avalanches. But when the right kind happen in your brain, you shouldn't worry. You won't feel them. They're probably to your benefit.

Actin cytonauts at play in the cell

(Phys.org) —Actin "comets" are scaffolds of polymer that various bacteria and viruses construct within cells. Party-crashers, like Listeria or Shigella bacteria, are able to seed structures using special patches of their ...

Research team identifies key step in process of Shigella infection

Researchers from the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Division of Infectious Diseases are investigating the mechanism by which several important pathogenic species of bacteria deliver proteins into the cells of the organisms ...

Cytoskeletons get a closer look

(Phys.org) —Rice University researchers have developed a theoretical approach to analyze the process by which protein building blocks form the biopolymer skeletons of living cells.

Some motor proteins cooperate better than others

Rice University researchers have engineered cells to characterize how sensitively altering the cooperative functions of motor proteins can regulate the transport of organelles.

Invasion without a stir

Bacteria of the genus Salmonella cause most food-borne illnesses. The bacteria attach to cells of the intestinal wall and induce their own ingestion by cells of the intestinal epithelium. Up till now, researchers assumed ...