It takes a tremendous amount of computing power to simulate all the components and behaviors of viruses and cells.
Copyright: Thomas Splettstoesser scistyle.com
Scanning through billions of chemicals to find a few potential drugs for treating COVID-19 requires computers that harness together thousands of processors.
Poor bone health is on the list of problems associated with diabetes.
Nngkhray Kracang Chay / EyeEm via Getty Images
AMPK is normally a tumour suppressor. But once cancer arises, AMPK becomes a tumour promoter, enhancing the survival of cancer cells. Understanding this could help create drugs that inhibit AMPK.
Spider glue is actually a specialized silk protein.
Sarah Stellwagen
The glue that gives spider webs their stickiness is a form of spider silk protein. Researchers can imagine cool uses for a synthetic version – but had to wait for the tricky glue gene to be sequenced.
A 3D rendering of an orange carotenoid protein, whose secrets are slowly being unlocked.
ibreakstock/Shutterstock
A core idea in molecular biology is that one gene codes for one protein. Now biologists have found an example of a gene that yields two forms of a protein – enabling it to evolve new functionality.
Spider silk is a bit like a cross between steel and rubber.
Mai Lam/The Conversation NY-BD-CC
Researchers use an algorithm designed to help robots move to figure out what’s possible when designing new molecules in a promising class of pharmaceuticals.
Delivering genetic material is a key challenge in gene therapy.
Invitation image created by Kstudio
One big challenge for gene therapies is delivering DNA or RNA safely to cells inside patients’ bodies. New nanoparticles could be an improvement over the current standard – repurposed viruses.
What can mating yeast tell us about new drugs?
Conor Lawless
By exploiting the way yeast cells mate, researchers have figured out a quicker, easier way to identify on- and off-target drug interactions.
Cryo-electron microscopy resolution continues to improve.
Veronica Falconieri, Sriram Subramaniam, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health
The 2017 Nobel Prize in chemistry goes to three scientists who revolutionized biochemistry by inventing a technology that can image the molecules of life without destroying them.
Plants make proteins based on whatever genetic material you give them.
Carl Davies, CSIRO
Inserting a random DNA mishmash into a plant or bacterium directs it to make a novel protein. Sifting through the resulting molecules, researchers may find ones have medical or agricultural uses.
General anesthetics affect cellular proteins to knock us out. Some do so better than others, especially the noble gas Xenon.
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How do anesthetics work, and what makes for an ideal anesthetic? It’s not as mysterious as once believed, and there’s a gas that ticks all the boxes for a perfect anesthetic: xenon.
The cells inside this bioreactor are the real pharmaceutical factories.
Sanofi Pasteur
This antivirus software protects health, not computers. Researchers are beginning to combat deadly infections using computer-generated antiviral proteins – a valuable tool to fight a future pandemic.
It’s the chemistry that makes it taste so great.
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