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Tag: "membranes" at biology news

Carnegie Mellon scientists find key HIV protein makes cell membranes bend more easily

...biological physics at Carnegie Mellon. “This helps membranes to curve, a necessary step for HIV to fuse with an immune cell as it infects it.” The Carnegie Mellon scientists used X-rays to study how HIV fusion peptide (part of a larger protein) affected the energy of manufactured lipid bilayers made to mimic ...

Cells re-energize to come back from the brink of death

...ls’ life and death. The process by which the membranes develop holes—mitochondrial outer membrane permeability (MOMP)—is often the “point of no return” for self-destruction, said Douglas Green, Ph.D., chair of the St. Jude Immunology department and the study’s senior author. MOMP triggers apoptosis, but ...

Simulations unravel outer membrane transport mechanism

...ric acid or other vital nutrients across the outer membranes of Gram-negative bacteria is not a simple task. The cells must be selective in what substances they take up, and the outer membrane contains no energy-generating machinery to power the job of hauling large molecules inside. The new study examined ...

Penn researchers link cell's protein recycling systems

...eneral process in which proteins are surrounded by membranes inside the cell for bulk digestion. “The dogma has been that the autophagy-lysosomal and the proteasomal systems are trains that run on different tracks, with similar purposes, but no point of intersection,” explains senior author J. Paul Taylor, ...

'Smart' mice teach scientists about learning process, brain disorders

...molecule called NR2B, which is found in nerve-cell membranes and stimulates the cell to fire when a nerve-cell-signaling molecule, or neurotransmitter, binds to it. NR2B previously has been implicated in the early stages of learning. The new research showed that when Cdk5 is removed from the brain, the leve...

Chemical maps hint at drug's effects on schizophrenia

...nd to have lower levels of the lipids used to make membranes involved in storing and communicating information in the brain. These lipid changes were partially reversed in patients treated with antipsychotic medications, said Joseph McEvoy, M.D., associate professor of biological psychiatry and study co-invest...

Natural antibiotics yield secrets to atom-level imaging technique

...e first places they try to penetrate: skin, mucous membranes and other surfaces. They're copiously produced in ...understand how these AMP smart bombs interact with membranes to destroy bacteria. We need to know how they're shaped before, during and after the process of atta...

A new study of living cells could revolutionize the way we test drugs

... is known to increase the transparency of cellular membranes which we hoped would give a signal we could detect," says Dr Irina Barbolina, who carried out the experiments. It worked. As soon as the yeast got a taste of the vodka, the probe registered an electrical signal. A drunken hiccup perhaps? "It was p...

Scientists discover new, readily available source of stem cells

...isolated from "afterbirth," the placenta and other membranes that are expelled after delivery. Atala said a bank with 100,000 specimens theoretically could supply 99 percent of the U.S. population with perfect genetic matches for transplantation. There are more than 4 million live births each year in the U...

Technology reveals 'lock and key' proteins behind diseases

...s contain transporters that are poised in cellular membranes and act as ‘gatekeepers?to allow the entry of certain substances, like nutrients, into the cell and promote the export of other substances, like toxins, out of the cell," says Professor Igor Stagljar, Department of Medical Genetics and Department of ...

Shedding new light on proteorhodopsin

...on pump, able to transport protons across cellular membranes in order to create stored electrochemical energy. ...ectrochemical potential of protons across cellular membranes that bacteria use as the energy source to, among other functions, power the rotary flagellar motor w...

Instruction manual for creating a molecular nose

...d membrane proteins directly into artificial lipid membranes (Angewandte Chemie, International Edition, January...tried to remove the proteins from their biological membranes by solubilising the latter using detergents. However, this destroys the natural folding structure of...

Researchers from the UGR use a bacterium to obtain biopreservatives from food

...cerning the way that bacteriocins act on bacterial membranes and will also help in designing antimicrobial molecules with new characteristics. "Our work," states Marina Sánchez, "has determined which AS-48 amino acids are essential for membranestability and biological activity, and it has also helped us unders...

Biologists prove critical step in membrane fusion

... Wessel and his collaborators discovered that the membranes of the egg and the vesicles are hemifused ?a state where the membranes are shared but the contents remain separate. Using fluorescent dyes and a high-resolution microscope...

FSU researchers determine a critical factor in workings of proteins

...oxins; the activation of receptor proteins on cell membranes by growth hormones; and the regulation of actin polymerization, which influences the physical structure of living cells. The association rate thus plays a critical role in the overall health of the organism." Mutations are one factor that can disr...

Cancer tip -- Nanoparticles can damage DNA, increase cancer risk

... Nanoparticles are small enough to penetrate cell membranes and defenses, yet they are large enough to cause trouble by interfering with normal cell processes, researchers at the University of Massachusetts say. Such nanoparticles are currently in use in electronics, cosmetics, and chemical manufacturing, am...

QUT scientists on the way to sifting out a cure for HIV

...ientists have developed specially designed ceramic membranes for nanofiltration, which are so advanced they hav...lood," Dr Zhu said. Dr Zhu said current ceramic membranes were unable to permit high filtration flux or flow, and at the same time effectively filter out unwa...

Batten down the hatches against HIV

...s attached phospholipids—molecules from which cell membranes are also made—to chains of polyethylene glycol. The phospholipids nestle securely onto the outer wall of the carbon nanotubes while the polyethylene glycol chains protrude into the surrounding solution. The required RNA molecules were fastened to the...

Microfossils unravel climate history of tropical Africa

...isms adapt the molecular composition of their cell membranes to ambient temperature to maintain constant physiological properties. When such molecules sink to the sea floor and are buried in sediments where oxygen does not penetrate, they can be preserved for thousands of years. The ratios between the differen...

Viral protein is an effective preventative against infection

...tted at school. They already reside on the mucosal membranes in the nose, waiting for their chance to strike. When a child catches the flu, or another virus that causes an upper respiratory infection, the bacteria seize the opportunity and migrate to the middle ear, causing a secondary infection. The new treat...

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