The key to understanding Corona: The virus needs only a single door opener

Super-resolution microscopy made it clear

09-Jun-2023 - Why is the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus able to spread so efficiently? Various hypotheses are still circulating in the scientific community. A group of researchers from Würzburg has now found groundbreaking answers. In Europe, the pandemic triggered in 2020 by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus is now largely ...

Not just a backup – the dual specificity of UBA6

A potential target for drug development

13-Sep-2022 - Researchers at the Rudolf Virchow Center of the University of Würzburg have unveiled the crystal structures of UBA6 in complex with either ATP or the ubiquitin-like protein FAT10. These results provide the foundation to study the individual roles of UBA6 towards the attachment of either ubiquitin ...

New method makes masked proteins in nerve cells visible

"This method opens new doors to the study of hard-to-label proteins in living neurons"

23-Nov-2021 - The research groups of Prof. Dr. Markus Sauer from the Biocenter and Dr. Gerti Beliu from the Rudolf Virchow Center for Integrative and Translational Bioimaging at the University of Würzburg, as well as the group of Dr. Daniel Choquet from the Bordeaux Neurocampus department of Bordeaux ...

Soap molecules open channel proteins extracted from the bacterial membrane

27-Aug-2021 - Soap molecules reversibly open specific channel proteins in bacteria. These channels are also interesting from a medical point of view, as they are part of the defense mechanisms of bacteria. Bacteria use special channel proteins through which they can channel fluid and ions out of the cell in ...

Bacteria under stress

Understand bacterial defense mechanisms in detail

09-Nov-2020 - In stress situations, bacteria use special ion channels for defense. Understanding how they function provides the basis for combating harmful bacteria. A Würzburg research group in cooperation with ETH Zurich and the University of Oxford has now been able to decipher how two of these channels are ...

It’s all about the right balance

New findings provide a structural framework for the development of new cancer-therapeutic strategies

28-Oct-2020 - Collaborative work of research groups at the University of Würzburg and the TU Dresden has provided important new insights for cancer research. During cell division specific target proteins have to be turned over in a precisely regulated manner. To this end specialized enzymes label the target ...

Puzzle solved after 16 years

Exact functionality of the protein complex CDK-activating kinase (CAK) resolved

20-Oct-2020 - A research group from Würzburg has now been able to clarify the long-standing question of how the protein complex CDK-activating kinase (CAK), which controls the central processes of cell division and transcription, is activated. The group analyzed the active form of the protein/CAK complex and ...

Specific control molecule in platelets identified

Starting point for drug development against thrombosis, heart attack and stroke

12-Aug-2020 - The previously largely unknown molecule bridging integrator 2 (BIN2) plays a central role in platelet activation, as researchers from Würzburg have now shown in a joint project of the DFG Collaborative Research Centre/Transregio 240. This finding provides indications of starting points for drug ...

Touchable corona viruses

Research group prints the first biologically correct 3D model of the SARS-CoV-2 virus

04-Aug-2020 - Viruses are tiny. They cannot be seen with the naked eye and they are even too small for optical microscopes, which makes it difficult to recognize the danger that COVID-19 and its pathogen SARS-CoV-2 pose to the world. This is why the international Coronavirus Structural Task Force led by Dr. ...

Megakaryocytes act as „bouncers“ restraining cell migration in the bone marrow

17-Jul-2019 - Scientists at the University Würzburg and University Hospital of Würzburg found that megakaryocytes act as “bouncers” and thus modulate bone marrow niche properties and cell migration dynamics. Hematopoiesis is the process of forming blood cells, which occurs predominantly in the bone marrow. The ...