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IMAGE: Using EMBL Hamburg s world-class beamline P12 at DESY s PETRA III synchrotron, researchers directed powerful X-ray beams at artificial proteins called coiled-coil origami proteins. view more
Credit: Credit: Fabio Lapenta / National Institute of Chemistry, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Origami may sound more like art than science, but a complex folding pathway that proteins use to determine their shape has been harnessed by molecular biologists, enabling them to build some of the most complex synthetic protein nanostructures to date.
Using EMBL Hamburg s world-class beamline P12 at DESY s PETRA III synchrotron, a team of Slovenian researchers, in collaboration with EMBL s Svergun group, directed powerful X-ray beams at artificial proteins called coiled-coil origami. The proteins were designed to fold into a particular shape based on short modules that interact in pairs. By determining their molecular structure at the EMBL beamline, the researchers confirmed that the
In the earliest stage of life, animals undergo some of their most spectacular physical transformations. Once merely blobs of dividing cells, they begin to rearrange themselves into their more characteristic forms, be they fish, birds or humans. Understanding how cells act together to build tissues has been a fundamental problem in physics and biology.
Cranfield University research using data from smart meters has found that household water consumption changed significantly after the start of the COVID-19 lockdown, shifting from predominantly higher usage early in the morning to multiple peaks and continued demand throughout the day.
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Researchers have genetically engineered a probiotic yeast to produce beta-carotene in the guts of laboratory mice. The advance demonstrates the utility of work the researchers have done to detail how a suite of genetic engineering tools can be used to modify the yeast. There are clear advantages to being able to engineer probiotics so that they produce the desired molecules right where they are needed, says Nathan Crook, corresponding author of the study and an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at North Carolina State University. You re not just delivering drugs or nutrients; you are effectively manufacturing the drugs or nutrients on site.