New numbering system facilitates comparability of protein domains

Researchers analyse models using AI

30-Jan-2025 - Adhesion GPCRs are a group of cell-surface sensors associated with many body functions and diseases. However, they are not yet sufficiently understood to be exploited for therapies. Collaborative Research Centre (CRC) 1423 at Leipzig University aims to change this. Scientists at the Faculty of ...

Biophysicists decipher functionality of adrenaline-binding receptor

In the future, researchers may be able to use these results to better avoid side effects when developing drugs

26-Jun-2024 - G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are found throughout the human body and are involved in many complex signalling pathways. Despite their importance in many biological processes, the central mechanism of G protein-coupling and the associated signal transmission is not yet understood. A team of ...

New regulator of eating behaviour identified

New potential approach to treating obesity

07-May-2024 - The rapidly escalating prevalence of overweight and obesity poses a significant medical challenge worldwide. In addition to people’s changing lifestyles, genetic factors also play a key role in the development of obesity. Scientists at Leipzig University and Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf ...

Pop-up factories beneath the cell membrane

Scientists have long regarded the cytosol liquid inside a cell as a large “swimming pool” in which everything floats around freely: But it seems that previously unknown structures

17-Mar-2022 - In a study published in Cell, MDC researchers show how a cell is able to process hundreds of signals simultaneously. Andreas Bock and his colleagues believe their findings will open up a whole new field of research in cell biology. A living cell is exposed to a variety of stimuli. Countless ...

Tiny sensors for major advances

Using NMR spectrometry to analyse important molecules that have not been accessible before now

18-May-2021 - An international research team involving the working group of biophysicist Dr. Manuel Etzkorn from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) has developed an approach for using NMR spectrometry to analyse important molecules that have not been accessible before now. In the journal Angewandte ...

Drug development: Nature-derived peptides as molecular tools to study cellular signalling

19-Dec-2019 - A group of researchers of the Institute of Pharmacology at the Medical University of Vienna in collaboration with the University of Vienna and different institutions in Australia, has shown that a certain peptide hormone derived from a mite activates selectively a specific secondary messenger ...

Coupled Proteins

How human cells react to external signals and further process them

03-Jul-2019 - Researchers from Heidelberg University and Sendai University in Japan used new biotechnological methods to study how human cells react to and further process external signals. They focussed on the interaction between so-called G-proteins – the “mediators” of signal transmission – and the ...

New computational method enhances drug target stability

02-Apr-2019 - Scientists from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech), and the University of Southern California (USC) have developed a new computational method for the design of thermally stable G protein-coupled receptors (GPCR) that ...

A Step Ahead in Pharmaceutical Research

Researchers have developed a method that makes it possible to measure the activation of receptors in a very short time

07-Sep-2018 - Hormones and other neurotransmitters, but also drugs, act upon receptors. “Their active substances bind to the receptors and modify the three-dimensional receptor arrangement regulating the downstream signal pathways,” says Hannes Schihada from the Institute for Pharmacology and Toxicology at the ...

New treatment target for melanoma identified

18-Jan-2018 - Researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have identified a new therapeutic target for the treatment of melanoma. For decades, research has associated female sex and a history of previous pregnancy with better outcomes after a melanoma diagnosis. Now, a ...