Research team combine two techniques to achieve isotropic super-resolution imaging

24-Jun-2022

Over the last two decades, microscopy has seen unprecedented advances in speed and resolution. However, cellular structures are essentially three-dimensional, and conventional super-resolution techniques often lack the necessary resolution in all three directions to capture details at a nanometer ...

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How equal charges in enzymes control biochemical reactions

26-Apr-2022

It is well known in physics and chemistry that equal charges repel each other, while opposite charges attract. It was long assumed that this principle also applies when enzymes – the biological catalysts in all living organisms – form or break chemical bonds. It was thought that enzymes place ...

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Novel strategy to investigate gene expression in mitochondria

25-Nov-2021

Mitochondria are considered the power plants of cells because they generate energy from our food with the help of oxygen. The machinery required for this is called the respiratory chain. Its central building blocks are formed by mitochondria themselves through the expression of genes of their own ...

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Research team investigates the importance of “tight junctions” for cell movement

15-Nov-2021

The ability of cells to move together in harmony is crucial for numerous biological processes in our body, for example wound healing, or the healthy development of an organism. This movement is made possible by the connections between individual cells. These connections, in turn, are established ...

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Researchers use laser to reveal that the inside of living cells softens and fluidifies when dividing

26-Oct-2021

Living cells are the basic building blocks of all organisms. We, as humans, are essentially a collection of trillions of living cells: and all these cells emerge from a single fertilized egg. This means that “mitosis” (or cell division) is one of the most fundamental and important processes of ...

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Researchers create new kind of environmentally friendly bioplastic with hydroplastic polymers

26-Jul-2021

Plastics offer many benefits to society and are widely used in our daily life: they are lightweight, cheap and adaptable. However, the production, processing and disposal of plastics are simply not sustainable, and pose a major global threat to the environment and human health. Eco-friendly ...

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The chemical nature of the switch was completely unknown

11-May-2021

Proteins perform a vast array of functions in the cell of every living organism with critical roles in almost every biological process. Not only do they run our metabolism, manage cellular signaling and are in charge of energy production, as antibodies they are also the frontline workers of our ...

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Researchers first to succeed in filming a phase transition with extremely high spatial and temporal resolution

26-Jan-2021

Laser beams can be used to change the properties of materials in an extremely precise way. This principle is already widely used in technologies such as rewritable DVDs. However, the underlying processes generally take place at such unimaginably fast speeds and at such a small scale that they ...

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Researchers discover the mechanism that prevents damage caused by shortened proteins

14-Jun-2019

The cell contains transcripts of the genetic material, which migrate from the cell nucleus to another part of the cell. This movement protects the genetic transcripts from the recruitment of “spliceosomes”. If this protection does not happen, the entire cell is in danger: meaning that cancer and ...

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07-May-2019

Graphene is celebrated as an extraordinary material. It consists of pure carbon, only a single atomic layer thick. Nevertheless, it is extremely stable, strong, and even conductive. For electronics, however, graphene still has crucial disadvantages. It cannot be used as a semiconductor, since it ...

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