Protein News and Research

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Proteins are complex molecules that are made up of amino acids. They can be found in every cell in the body, and carry out vital processes that keep human beings alive. Mutations in proteins can lead to a multitude of diseases, the most common being cancer.

Structure-Guided Protein Engineering Unlocks Safer Methods for Gene Therapy

A joint research team led by Professor Daesik Kim (Department of Medicine, Sungkyunkwan University), along with Professor Yong-Sub Kim (University of Ulsan College of Medicine) and Professor Jae-Hyun Park (Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine), has announced the development of 'OpenABE' (Open Adenine Base Editor).

31 Jul 2026

New Base Editing Strategy Rewrites Genetic Code to Minimize Huntington's Symptoms

A gene editing tool designed to precisely rewrite the gene that causes Huntington's disease reduced toxic protein fragments and symptoms associated with the disease in mice, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign report.

30 Jul 2026

Scientists Discover How Heart Muscle Cells Remodel Actin Filaments

Biophysicists unraveled a mystery of how muscles form at the molecular level and how they maintain their function.

30 Jul 2026

Northwestern Chemists Repurpose Flexible DNA as Programmable Molecular Glue

For decades, scientists have largely relied on painstaking trial and error to coax proteins into crystalline forms.

30 Jul 2026

Harvard Biologists Discover Unique Ribosome Adaptation in Shallow Water Octopuses

The octopus is a biological oddity. It can use tools, open jars, and its complex nervous system supports as many neurons as a small primate.

30 Jul 2026

Study Provides New Insights for the Development of Novel Antifungal Drug Targets

This study was conducted by the research group of Professor Liao Guojian from the College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Southwest University. Candidate genes potentially involved in lysine synthesis in C. neoformans were identified and knocked out.

29 Jul 2026

Wearable Microneedle Sensor Enables In Vivo Bioanalysis of Cardiac Biomarkers

Researchers developed a microneedle electrochemiluminescence device that measured cardiac troponins in interstitial fluid at 30-minute intervals and detected cTnI down to 21.3 fg/mL in artificial interstitial fluid. In 15 rats and 1 pig, researchers recorded biomarker trends broadly consistent with serum ELISA results, although the wired, single-target prototype has not been tested in humans.

28 Jul 2026

Moth Wings Smell Host Plants to Identify Optimal Egg-Laying Spots

Insect wings are bristling with senses, feeling the wind blowing and even tasting potential mates, but little was known about whether moth wings are equipped with a sense of smell.

28 Jul 2026

Scientists Discover Molecular Mechanism Behind Red and Green Color Vision

Human color vision depends on three types of cone cells in the retina. Although all three contain the same light-absorbing molecule, 11-cis-retinal, differences in the surrounding protein determine sensitivity to red, green, or blue light.

28 Jul 2026

Research Decodes How Gut Microbes Process Plant-Based Nutrients

Plant-based diets are good for you. They promote gut, immune, metabolic and cardiovascular health, in part by cultivating a diverse community of intestinal bacteria.

28 Jul 2026

Novel Dendritic Cell Vaccine Redirects Viral Memory to Fight Tumors

In a discovery that could redefine the future of cancer immunotherapy, scientists from Celloram Inc., University Hospitals and Case Western Reserve University have developed a novel cancer vaccine platform that transforms the impact of the largest immunological event in modern history

28 Jul 2026

Molecular Insights Into Fungal Effectors Disabling Host Immune Transcription Factors

Plants defend themselves through a layered innate immune system: pathogen-associated molecular pattern-triggered immunity (PTI) and effector-triggered immunity (ETI), mediated by pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) and nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat (NLR) receptors, respectively.

28 Jul 2026

Deep-Learning Holography Detects Elusive Circulating Tumor Cells in Prostate Cancer

Researchers combined microfluidic enrichment, AI-assisted holography, and fluorescence profiling to identify circulating tumor cell candidates in 13 men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer and 8 healthy donors. The platform found higher median candidate counts in patients, while nearly two-thirds of PSMA-positive candidates lacked EpCAM, suggesting EpCAM-dependent assays could miss some cells.

27 Jul 2026

New Molecule Restores Muscle Repair Signal Linked to Age-Related Muscle Loss

One of the first tissues to deteriorate with aging is skeletal muscle. Weakness, scarring, internal muscle fat accumulation, and the loss of fast-twitch muscle fibers—which are crucial for rapid and forceful movements—can result from this deterioration.

27 Jul 2026

Research Maps Structural Mechanism Linking Amino Acid Availability to Cancer Growth

Cells carry their own growth switches. When enough nutrients-amino acids in particular-are available, cells flip this switch on and begin to grow. Researchers at KAIST and Yonsei University have now uncovered the molecular mechanism by which amino acid signals activate this cellular growth switch.

27 Jul 2026

Study Uncovers Two Distinct Embryonic Macrophage Populations with Different Repair Abilities

In leukemia's most aggressive forms, the blood cell factories in our bone marrow falter. Instead of dividing and multiplying at their usual prolific pace, generating hundreds of billions of new cells daily, some precursor cells stall out at an immature stage.

27 Jul 2026

Synthetic Biology Breakthrough Rebuilds Basic Features of Cellular Life

Nature is beautiful, powerful and essential. But nature is not always gentle. The same biological world that gives rise to forests, coral reefs and human life also produces infections, cancer, genetic disease, crop blights and toxins.

24 Jul 2026

Elevated Levels of Acid Ceramidase Make Zombie Cells Susceptible to Ferroptosis

Our population is aging. The United Nations reports that by 2050, the number of people over the age of 85 on our planet is set to triple.

24 Jul 2026

AI-Assisted Protein Tools Guide Design of Synthetic Plant Immune Receptors

Crop production faces threats from plant pathogens. Traditional disease-resistance breeding relies heavily on natural plant resistance genes that encode immune receptors adapted to particular pathogens.

24 Jul 2026

Bacterial TGT Enzyme Engages Two tRNAs to Control Protein Production

The enzyme tRNA-guanine transglycosylase (TGT) chemically modifies transfer RNA (tRNA) and plays a key role in how disease-causing bacteria control the production of proteins needed to cause infection. E. coli TGT is nearly identical to the one found in Shigella, which causes the intestinal infection shigellosis.

23 Jul 2026