Molecular Biology News and Research

RSS

Molecular biology is the study of biology at a molecular level. The field overlaps with other areas of biology and chemistry, particularly genetics and biochemistry. Molecular biology chiefly concerns itself with understanding the interactions between the various systems of a cell, including the interactions between DNA, RNA and protein biosynthesis as well as learning how these interactions are regulated.

Enzyme in fruit fly larvae plays key role in waking up brain stem cells

Researchers studying an enzyme in fruit fly larvae have found that it plays an important role in waking up brain stem cells from their dormant 'quiescent' state, enabling them to proliferate and generate new neurons.

12 Feb 2021

Cell cycle of cancer cells can be disrupted using two commercially available inhibitors

With two commercially available inhibitors, the cell cycle of the cancer cells in the childhood tumor neuroblastoma can be disrupted at a key point causing tumor cell death.

12 Feb 2021

Unusual DNA folding leads to higher mutation rates

DNA sequences that can fold into shapes other than the classic double helix tend to have higher mutation rates than other regions in the human genome.

From Penn State University 10 Feb 2021

Study reveals molecular details of how SARS-CoV-2 infects cells

The molecular details of how SARS-CoV-2 enters cells and infects them are still not clear. Researchers at Uppsala University have tested the bioinformatic predictions made by another research group and have identified receptors that could be important players in the process.

9 Feb 2021

Researchers uncover clues to why some corals are resistant to bleaching

Coral reefs are beautiful and diverse ecosystems that power the economies of many coastal communities. They're also facing threats that are driving their decline, including the planet's warming waters.

9 Feb 2021

Synthetic biomolecule resembles dual stimuli-responsive channel

For the first time, researchers from the Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) and the University of Tokyo in Japan have produced a new artificial transmembrane ion channel—based on a naturally found transmembrane channel that plays a role in neuron signaling—that reacts to both electrical and chemical stimuli.

2 Feb 2021

New computational method simplifies the analysis of gene-environmental interactions

Scientists from Weill Cornell Medicine and the Ithaca campus at Cornell University have designed a novel computational technique for analyzing environmental and genetic interactions and how they affect disease risk.

28 Jan 2021

Pioneer transcription factors help turn on key genes that give cells unique properties

Biologists have long wondered how complex organisms contain a variety of dramatically different types of cells with specialized functions, even though all of those cells are genetically identical.

25 Jan 2021

Study explains operating mode of mitochondrial sorting and assembly machinery

Mitochondria are vital for the human body as cellular powerhouses: They possess more than 1,000 different proteins, required for many central metabolic pathways. Disfunction of these leads to severe diseases, especially of the nervous system and the heart.

18 Jan 2021

Targeting RNA splicing can trigger antiviral immune pathways in triple-negative breast cancers

Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine have discovered how therapeutics targeting RNA splicing can activate antiviral immune pathways in triple negative breast cancers (TNBC) to trigger tumor cell death and signal the body's immune response.

15 Jan 2021

Nanobodies can prevent entry of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus into human cells

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have developed, in collaboration with researchers in Germany and the U.S., new small antibodies, also known as nanobodies, which prevent the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus from entering human cells.

13 Jan 2021

Study unravels the mystery of infectious virion formation

Researchers have for the first time identified the way viruses like the poliovirus and the common cold virus 'package up' their genetic code, allowing them to infect cells.

11 Jan 2021

Two cryo-EM studies identify different types of ATP synthase organization

The mitochondrial ATP synthase is energy-converting macromolecular machine that uses the electrochemical potential across the bioenergetic membrane called cristae. This potential is maintained via a membrane curvature that is induced by ATP synthase assembled in dimers.

11 Jan 2021