Despite decades of study, exactly how herpesviruses invade our cells remains something of a mystery. Now researchers studying one herpesvirus, the varicella zoster virus (VZV) that causes chicken pox, may have found an important ...
Biochemistry
Aug 19, 2020
0
92
Many viruses, including that perennial winter affliction, the influenza virus, are protected by a lipid membrane on loan from the host cell. The fusion proteins on the surface of the membrane are tasked with merging the lipid ...
Cell & Microbiology
Apr 5, 2019
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5
The vast majority of top-selling drugs are biologics—also known as proteins. Proteins are used today to treat many debilitating diseases, including arthritis, Crohn's disease, and several forms of cancer. They have helped ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jan 7, 2019
0
52
A little-studied plant cellular complex plays an essential role in a biological process—vacuole fusion—critical to plant growth and development, according to new research from North Carolina State University. The findings ...
Biotechnology
Aug 21, 2018
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60
Researchers have identified a fused gene in moss that provides insight into how cells build their external walls. The same discovery raises questions about the one-of-a-kind gene that features two distinct proteins that participate ...
Biotechnology
Feb 12, 2018
0
56
All organisms must continuously adapt to their environment in order to survive. Such adaptation is brought about by changes in their genetic material. Together with colleagues from New Zealand, Paul Rainey from the Max Planck ...
Evolution
Sep 8, 2017
0
196
There hasn't been a gold standard for how orthopaedic spine surgeons promote new bone growth in patients, but now Northwestern University scientists have designed a bioactive nanomaterial that is so good at stimulating bone ...
Bio & Medicine
Jun 19, 2017
0
41
Sexual reproduction and viral infections actually have a lot in common. According to new research, both processes rely on a single protein that enables the seamless fusion of two cells, such as a sperm cell and egg cell, ...
Cell & Microbiology
Feb 23, 2017
0
597
The protein that helps the sperm and egg fuse together in sexual reproduction can also fuse regular cells together. Recent findings by a team of biomedical researchers from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Argentina, ...
Cell & Microbiology
Feb 14, 2017
0
31
Every time a hormone is released from a cell, every time a neurotransmitter leaps across a synapse to relay a message from one neuron to another, the cell must undergo exocytosis. This is the process responsible for transporting ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jan 23, 2017
0
6
