Like a wedge in a hinge

16-Apr-2018

In the fight against cancer, scientists are developing new drugs to hit tumor cells at so far unused weak points. Such a “sore spot” is the protein complex SF3B. Researchers led by Vlad Pena at the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen have now succeeded for the first ...

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By extracting cholesterol from host cell membranes, Helicobacter pylori generates “micro-islands”

16-Mar-2018

The gastric bacterium H. pylori colonizes the stomachs of around half the human population and can lead to the development of gastric cancer. It is usually acquired in childhood and persists life-long, despite a strong inflammatory defence reaction in the gastric mucosa. Such inflammation is ...

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15-Mar-2018

Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz, Germany, have received an unexpected result: They have discovered a new method to improve contacts in OLEDs. This new approach leads to a higher energy efficiency and can be used in almost any organic semiconductor element. ...

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First Characterization of a Sensory [FeFe] Hydrogenase

11-Jan-2018

Hydrogenases are enzymes capable of making hydrogen gas (H2) using protons from water, a reaction with relevance to a potential future green energy economy based on H2. Bacteria containing these enzymes often produce H2 as a waste product during sugar metabolism in the absence of oxygen. ...

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Quality control in the mitochondria

01-Nov-2017

A common feature of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's or Huntington's disease are deposits of aggregated proteins in the patient's cells that cause damage to cellular functions. Scientists report that, even in normal cells, aberrant aggregation-prone proteins are ...

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Nanoparticles from the secretion of velvet worms form polymer fibres that can be recycled in water

18-Oct-2017

Nature is an excellent teacher – even for material scientists. Researchers, including scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, have now observed a remarkable mechanism by which polymer materials are formed. In order to capture prey, velvet worms shoot out a sticky ...

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Tissues respond very differently to an ageing ameliorating intervention

09-Oct-2017

In old age a variety of cellular processes decline and the risk to develop age-related diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s or Diabetes increases dramatically. But does ageing affect all organs and tissues in the body in the same way? And should drugs that are developed to improve health in ...

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The adhesion of Chlamydomonas, a unicellular alga, to surfaces is light-dependent

02-Oct-2017

Sunlight allows green algae to do more than just carry out photosynthesis.. Some unicellular algae actually use light to switch the adhesion of their flagella to surfaces on and off – a phenomenon first discovered by physicists at the Göttingen Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and ...

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A new test for the early detection of lung cancer measures tiny changes in the composition of the breath

21-Apr-2017

“Inhale deeply ... and exhale.” This is what a test for lung cancer could be like in future. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research in Bad Nauheim have developed a method that can detect the disease at an early stage. To this effect, they investigated the presence of ...

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21-Apr-2017

It loses its pigments, its motor skills and mental faculties decline, it gets cancer – the turquoise killifish (Nothobranchius furzeri) struggles with the same signs of old age that affect many other living creatures. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing in Cologne have ...

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