Nov. 24, 2010

Single-molecule Microscope

Cells have surface proteins, called cadherins, that help them stick together. Different kinds of cells have different kinds of cadherins. The typical tools for observing and measuring those proteins focus on tens of thousands of them at a time - providing data on the average molecule in a sample, but not on a single molecule. Sivasankar, an Iowa State University assistant professor of physics and astronomy and an associate of the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory, wanted to study them one at a time. moreMar. 09, 2010

Probe of Hidden Dynamics of Molecular Biology

Funded by a US-$1 million grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation, University of Chicago (USA) scientists are aiming to develop a systematic method for determining how biological processes emerge from molecular interactions. The method may permit them to "rewire" the regulatory circuitry of insulin-secreting pancreatic beta cells, which play a major role in type-2 diabetes. more