Behind the Paper
The real stories behind the latest research papers, from conception to publication, the highs and the lows
Filtered by: Cell & Molecular Biology
Unravelling the bioactive potential of a bacterial symbiont of a tropical bird
Novel Amycolatopsis sp. PS_44_ISF1 isolated from the uropygial gland of Pachycephala schlegelii possesses the ability to produce a series of bioactive compounds, including two novel families of metabolites. Our study exemplifies the underexplored chemical potential of bacterial symbionts of birds.
Behind the paper: Untangling Zebrafish Genetic Annotation of TCOF1 and NOLC1
Our research journey began with an intriguing paradox: two genes, TCOF1 and NOLC1, critical for ribosomal RNA processing and nucleolar function, were confusingly annotated in zebrafish databases....
Enabling transport and metabolism in synthetic cells
Decarboxylation of L-malate coupled to L-malate/L-lactate exchange provides metabolic energy for the uptake and metabolism of nutrients in cell-like lipid vesicles.
Divalent and multivalent cations control liquid-like assembly of poly(ADP-ribosyl)ated PARP1 into multimolecular associates in vitro
We explain the role of poly(ADP-ribose) and biology relevant cations in the formation of condensates and points to the direct involvement of poly(ADP-ribosyl)ated PARP1 in the regulation of DNA repair via condensate formation.
Photoreactive fragment pharmacophores explore potential binding sites and provide hits for highly challenging drug targets
Photoaffinity-tagged fragments are increasingly used for convenient hit detection and binding site mapping in early drug discovery. We tackled two important challenges by maximizing the pharmacophore diversity of the core fragments, and by enhancing the labelling efficiency of the photoaffinity tag.
Breaking the Efficiency Barrier in Dicot Prime Editing: The Journey with Tomato and Arabidopsis
Our recent Nature Plants paper reveals prime editing breakthroughs in dicot plants like tomatoes and Arabidopsis. By integrating novel components, we overcame efficiency challenges, achieving high rates of inheritable edits. This post explores our research journey and the innovations behind it.
Membrane topography variations cause apparent protein clustering
Apparent clustering of membrane proteins occurs upon failing to account for membrane topography variations. This we demonstrate and present a remedy for. Our data suggest that the high incidence of clustering reported misrepresents biology of consequence for our conceptional understanding.
