Molecular biology – Page 3
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ResearchArtificially expanded genetic alphabet evolves enzymes for the first time
Libraries of short DNA sequences incorporating synthetic nucleotides perform better as enzymes than ordinary DNA
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FeatureThe brain chemicals that control what we enjoy
Researchers are trying to understand how orexins influence our appetites, and whether we can use them to treat addiction and obesity, explains Andy Extance
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OpinionWhy glycans?
Glycoscience is turning out to be more interesting than anyone might have imagined
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FeatureHow click conquered chemistry
Katrina Krämer tells the story of how click and bioorthogonal chemistry came to win the 2022 Nobel prize
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OpinionNobel vision
Looking beyond the here-and-now let click chemistry open up a whole new world of possibility
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OpinionCracking codons
Understanding how chemistry links RNA triplets to the properties of amino acids
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OpinionWhy AlphaFold won’t revolutionise drug discovery
Protein structure prediction is a hard problem, but even harder ones remain
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ResearchTeixobactin’s two pronged antibiotic attack mechanism revealed
Understanding of formation of deadly supramolecular structures could help build improved antimicrobials
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ResearchMystery of how plants make strychnine solved 75 years after characterisation
Three-quarters of a century after Robinson and Woodward cracked structure chemists unravel poison’s biosynthesis
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ResearchFossil molecules reveal dinosaurs’ bird-like metabolism
Thioethers preserved in bones show that most dinosaurs were warm-blooded, though T rex may have been particularly sluggish
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NewsChemistry Nobel laureate Sidney Altman dies at 82
Canadian–American molecular biologist won the 1989 prize for discovering RNA’s catalytic ability
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ArticleCausal emergence might explain how living systems can operate
Life does not run like clockwork
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FeatureSequencing one cell at a time
New advances that allow scientists to uncover the molecular differences between individual cells could revolutionise medicine, Ian le Guillou finds
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ResearchBiochemical secrets of tarantula’s painful bite could point to perfect painkillers
King baboon spider venom could help scientists develop potent analgesics
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ResearchNew microscope makes tracking chiral molecules in live cells possible
The instrument uses circularly polarised light to tell left- and right-handed species apart and monitor them in space and time
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ResearchLeft-handed nanoparticles are far better vaccine adjuvants than their mirror images
Chiral gold nanoparticles shown for the first time to elicit differing immune responses in cells and live mice
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ResearchGel-forming proteins could help tardigrades survive extreme conditions
Biophysical dissection of tardigrade’s disordered protein could uncover how microscopic animals survive conditions that kill most other forms of life
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ResearchIndividual proteins identified with world’s tiniest ruler
Nanosized caliper that can identify individual proteins could ‘do for proteins what next-generation sequencing did for DNA’
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ResearchPossible dinosaur DNA discovered in 125-million-year-old fossil
But that doesn’t mean we can clone extinct species Jurassic Park-style
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ResearchExploiting evolution to explore chemical space shows promise for drug discovery
Using molecular trees – similar to family trees – chemists could predict how products will evolve to make new molecules