Biochemistry News and Research

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Fungal Detoxification Pathway Enables Infestation of Bark Beetle Pests

Spruce bark is rich in phenolic compounds that protect trees from pathogenic fungi. A research team at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena investigated how these plant defenses function within the food web, particularly in spruce bark beetles (Ips typographus), which ingest the compounds through their diet. Could the beetles use substances from the spruce's defenses to protect themselves against pathogenic fungi?

30 Dec 2025

Researchers Find Enzyme That Controls Fat Production, Offering New Drug Target

Obesity is a global epidemic and a major cause of morbidity and mortality because it increases the risk for comorbidities, including heart disease and fatty liver disease (MASLD). Rates of these disorders have risen as the world increasingly adopts energy-dense diets and sedentary lifestyles.

24 Dec 2025

UT Southwestern Researchers Design Tau Protein to Combat Neurodegenerative Diseases

A designer version of the tau protein, developed by a team led by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers, maintains its biological function while resisting aggregation, a pathological trait linked to neurodegenerative diseases called tauopathies. These findings, reported in Structure, could lead to new treatments for conditions including Alzheimer's disease, frontotemporal dementia, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), and progressive supranuclear palsy.

24 Dec 2025

Mapping the Four Dimensional Organization of the Human Genome

A new study challenges what's long been assumed about genetic variants thought to always cause inherited blindness.

23 Dec 2025

A Molecular Tug-of-War Shapes Gene Regulation and Disease

A newly revealed molecular tug-of-war may have implications for better understanding how a multitude of diseases and disorders - including cancers, neurodegenerative diseases and immune disorders - originate, as well as how to potentially treat them, according to researchers at Penn State.

18 Dec 2025

New Insights Into LARP6-RNA Binding Could Lead to Fibrosis Therapies

A research team at the Institute of Molecular Biophysics and the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Florida State University has made a significant discovery regarding the interaction between a protein present in the human body and RNA, which may pave the way for innovative treatments for tissue scarring, commonly referred to as fibrosis.

12 Dec 2025

Broken DNA Loops Trigger Lymphoma Development

Cancer involves more than just genetic mutations; it also involves structural failures. Consider a city where roads disappear, isolating communities from vital resources.

8 Dec 2025

Cells Use Condensates to Save RNA Messages During Stress

All cells need to sense and respond to their environment, to know when to activate genes, build proteins, and carry out their basic functions.

4 Dec 2025

Light-Activated AR3 Triggers Alkalinity-Driven Apoptosis in Cancer Cells

One of the hallmarks of cancer cells is their ability to evade apoptosis, or programmed cell death, through changes in protein expression.

2 Dec 2025

Capturing a Self-Splicing Ribozyme in Motion

RNA is a central biological macromolecule, now widely harnessed in medicine and nanotechnology. Like proteins, RNA function often depends on its precise three-dimensional structure.

28 Nov 2025

Real-Time Visualization Reveals the Transcriptional Gearbox

Life's instructions are written in DNA, but it is the enzyme RNA polymerase II (Pol II) that reads the script, transcribing RNA in eukaryotic cells and eventually giving rise to proteins.

28 Nov 2025

Study Identifies Adipogenin as Crucial Driver of Lipid Droplet Formation

A microprotein called adipogenin appears to play a key role in helping fat cells store lipid droplets – a phenomenon that's pivotal for metabolic health, a study co-led by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers shows.

27 Nov 2025

Mitochondrial Mutation Found to Rewire Immune Function

Scientists have discovered how a mitochondrial mutation rewires immune function in a model of inherited primary mitochondrial disorders, which often lead to severe disability and death.

27 Nov 2025

Scientists Map How Transcription Factors Interpret DNA Sequences

With a new study in the journal Cell, researchers at Stanford University and Stockholm University have contributed to increased knowledge about gene regulation in human cells.

27 Nov 2025

Ribosome Collisions Activate Key Stress Signaling Mechanisms in Cells

LMU researchers uncover the mechanism by which ribosomes raise alarms in the cell.

25 Nov 2025

Chaperone-Shielding Mechanism Regulates Protein Glycosylation

Proteins are often called the building blocks of cells, but even those building blocks need to be built. One of the most important steps in the process of building proteins is glycosylation, when sugar molecules (glycans) are attached to the maturing protein.

20 Nov 2025

Researchers Discover Molecular Switch That Helps Breast Cancer Cells Survive Stress

Cells are regularly faced with environmental stresses that may damage or destroy them. To survive, they quickly adjust their gene expression to protect themselves.

18 Nov 2025

Atomic Structure of Kinesin-2 Reveals the Molecular Logic of Cargo Recognition

For decades, scientists have known that motor proteins like kinesin-2 ferry vital cargo along microtubule "highways" inside cells.

7 Nov 2025

Hidden Role of Biliverdin Reductase A in Fighting Oxidative Damage

According to a new study from Johns Hopkins Medicine, the enzyme biliverdin reductase A (BVRA) protects neurons directly from oxidative stress, regardless of whether it produces the yellow pigment bilirubin.

5 Nov 2025

Scientists Uncover How "P Bodies" Guide Stem Cells to Their Destinies

How do stem cells know what to become? Nearly three decades after scientists isolated the first human embryonic stem cells, researchers are still working hard to understand precisely how a single, undifferentiated cell can become any one of the roughly 200 cell types that make up the human body.

4 Nov 2025