Molecular & Structural Biology

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Identifying Molecules That Activate and Inhibit Key Protein Function

Researchers at Northwestern University have discovered a concealed molecular "control switch" within a protein that plays a crucial role in the body's ability to perceive taste, regulate blood sugar, and protect the gut.

7 Jan 2026

Dual Genetic Mutations Drive RNA Mis-Splicing and Leukemia Progression

Treating acute myeloid leukemia (AML) depends on knowing what goes wrong inside cells. A new study suggests that two genetic mutations – IDH2 and SRSF2 – work cooperatively to mis-splice RNA messages and change how blood cells develop.

6 Jan 2026

Hidden Molecular "Control Switch" Uncovered Inside TRPM5 Protein

Northwestern University scientists have uncovered a hidden molecular "control switch" inside a protein that helps the body sense taste, control blood sugar and defend the gut.

6 Jan 2026

LINE-1 Retrotransposons Reshape Cancer Genome Architecture

Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have revealed previously unappreciated roles for the retrotransposon LINE-1 in shaping the cancer genome structure and regulation.

6 Jan 2026

Base-Pair Resolution Benchmark Uncovers Structural Variation Complexity in Tomato Genomes

Structural variations (SVs), including insertions, deletions, inversions, and substitutions, can profoundly influence gene regulation and phenotype.

2 Jan 2026

Interferon Response in Female Brains Linked to Alzheimer's Progression

More than seven million Americans have Alzheimer's disease, and two-thirds of them are women, according to the Alzheimer's Association. The O'Banion Lab at the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience at the University of Rochester has long been studying this disease and is looking more closely at the differences between male and female brains.

30 Dec 2025

Computational Brain Model Predicts Errors, Uncovers Previously Unseen Neurons

A new computational model of the brain based closely on its biology and physiology not only learned a simple visual category learning task exactly as well as lab animals, but even enabled the discovery of counterintuitive activity by a group of neurons that researchers working with animals to perform the same task had not noticed in their data before, said a team of scientists at Dartmouth College, MIT, and the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

30 Dec 2025

Engineered EVs Offer a Modular and Clinically Adaptable Immune-Tolerance Platform

A research team at the Nano Life Science Institute (WPI-NanoLSI) and the Faculty of Medicine at Kanazawa University has developed a new class of engineered extracellular vesicles (EVs) capable of inducing antigen-specific regulatory T cells (Tregs), the immune cells that play a central role in suppressing excessive immune responses.

24 Dec 2025

New 3D Model Reveals Crucial Interactions During Early Embryo Development

By engineering a system replicating the womb lining with high biological accuracy, researchers at the Babraham Institute and Stanford University have been able to study the implantation of human embryos, opening up this enigmatic process to investigation.

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

Kinetic Traps Explain Differences in GPCR Drug Efficacy

G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) are proteins triggered by ligands (protein-binding chemicals) from outside cells to transmit signals inside the cell.

23 Dec 2025

Calcium Signaling Suppresses Lignin Accumulation in Pear Stone Cells

Stone cells arise from lignified secondary cell walls and cause a gritty texture, reduced sweetness, and poor flavor in many pear cultivars.

23 Dec 2025

Machine Learning Models Identify Early Metabolic Shifts

Acute systemic inflammation has long been suspected to trigger harmful processes within the brain, contributing to neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. A new study published online in the Journal of Proteome Research on November 30, 2025, led by Professor Kei Zaitsu from the Faculty of Biology-Oriented Science and Technology, Kindai University, Japan, now provides compelling evidence that such inflammation causes region-specific metabolic disruption, identifying biochemical pathways that fail during the early stages of neuroinflammation.

22 Dec 2025

Study Identifies Protein Target to Overcome Drug Resistance in NSCLC

Lung cancer is the second-most common cancer and the leading cause of cancer death in the United States.

22 Dec 2025

Condensates Introduce a New Paradigm in Cellular Bioelectricity

Many biological processes are regulated by electricity-from nerve impulses to heartbeats to the movement of molecules in and out of cells.

19 Dec 2025

Elusive Kinase State Explains How Cells Achieve Efficient Signaling

Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have characterized a hidden intermediate state at the center of Src kinase function. This hidden state allows the kinase to repeatedly modify its target, without needing to release

19 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