A protein’s function depends on a precise quaternary structure. However, when that structure is disrupted through misfolding, not only does the protein lose its function, but it runs the risk of ...

Nanoplastics (NPs) are being increasingly recognized as potential biological hazards, but their direct effects on molecular structure and cellular function remain poorly understood ...

Recently identified and long-lasting type of protein misfolding — non-native entanglements — observed in all-atom protein folding simulations. Representative misfolded conformations of the small ...

New computer simulations that model every atom of a protein as it folds into its final three-dimensional form support the existence of a recently identified type of protein misfolding. Proteins must ...

Prions transmit their abnormally folded shape onto other proteins. Researchers designed a synthetic fragment of the tau protein that exhibits prion-like behavior. Misfolded tau proteins are the ...

Neurodegenerative diseases are characterized by the deposition of clumped proteins in the brain and progressive neuronal cell death. Although the causal link between protein aggregates and ...

When proteins are made in a cell, they start out as strings of amino acids, which have to be folded into the correct, three-dimensional shape so they will function properly. Misfolded proteins can ...

For those outside the chemistry cognoscenti, the announcement might have seemed little more than researchers patting each other on the back. But the question of protein folding had plagued scientists ...

"Science is teamwork. Lone wolves no longer exist," Peter Walter, researcher and professor at the University of California, San Francisco, and former president of the American Society for Biochemistry ...

Scientists at Northwestern University and University of California, Santa Barbara have created the first synthetic fragment of tau protein that acts like a prion. The “mini prion” folds and stacks ...

The brain of a rat in which a fluorescent protein has been used to highlight transplanted human brain cells - Copyright Stanford University/AFP Sergiu PASCA The brain ...