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Originally published by Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne on September 9, 2024 Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Every cell in our body contains the same DNA , yet liver cells are different from brain cells , and skin cells differ from muscle cells . What determines these differences? It all comes down to gene regulation ; essentially how and when genes are turned on and off to meet the cell's demands. But gene regulation is quite complex , especially because it is itself regulated by other parts of DNA . There are t wo important components that control gene regulation : the first are enhancers , which are short bits of DNA that increase the likelihood that a gene will be activated—even if that gene is far away from the enhancer on the genome. The second are specialized proteins , generally referred to as " transcription factors " ( TFs ), which bind to enhancers and, put crudely, control gene expression by "flipping" the genes' on/off swit

Originally published by Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine on September 4, 2024 Researchers have i dentified an intermediate form of the 5-HT3A serotonin receptor (blue). In its final form, a fifth subunit is added (green). The intermediate form presents a potential new drug target.. Credit: Max Delbrück Center A new study published in The EMBO Journal points to new potential strategies to treat psychiatric and gastrointestinal disorders that are not well addressed by current medications. Dr. Bianca Introini and her colleagues in the In Situ Structural Biology lab of Professor Misha Kudryashev have identified a stable intermediate form of the pentameric serotonin-gated 5-HT3A receptor — a cellular membrane protein . The researchers' ability to identify such a structure is exceptional, says Kudryashev, because intermediates of assembling membrane proteins are notoriously difficult to purify . The intermediate form could serve as a new drug target . Serotonin is

Originally published by University of Sheffield , on September 2, 2024   Swimming bacteria experience larger changes in concentration over time, whereas twitching bacteria experience larger changes in concentration over the lengths of their bodies. Credit: Nature Microbiology (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41564-024-01729-3 Scientists from the University of Sheffield have discovered a new sensory capability in bacteria which c ould transform treatments for bacterial infections . It was previously thought that bacteria are too small to directly sense differences in chemical concentration . However, contrary to decades of established scientific belief, a new study has shown bacteria can in fact directly sense their chemical environment across the length of their cell bodies with an unprecedented degree of precision . The research , published on September 2, 2024, in Nature Microbiology , is a key step towards the development of innovative treatments t hat manipulate bacterial mot