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Two proteins that together serve as a scaffold for iron-sulfur cluster assembly in the yeast cytosol have been identified, providing the first mechanistic insight into cytosolic cluster assembly.
Simultaneous measurement of multiple analytes in high-throughput assays requires the design of integrated sensory elements. The latest development in this field is an engineering masterpiece based on microfluidics, photolithography and polymer science.
Lysine methylation has been implicated in gene transcription and epigenetic control. Chemical modification of cysteine residues results in a highly similar structural and functional analog of methylated lysine and provides a means to study this important modification in nucleosomes.
Quantitative detection of H2O2, which is increasingly recognized as an intracellular messenger, remains a challenge for cell biologists. The development of molecular probes that fluoresce upon H2O2-mediated removal of a boronate-based protecting group, rather than upon nonspecific oxidation, demonstrates that this challenge is not insurmountable.
A chemical-genetic study indicates that modulation of neurotransmitter signaling affects the self-renewal capacity of neural stem cells in culture. Although the mechanisms of action are not resolved, the research points to a potential therapeutic target class for treatment of brain tumors.
The Broad Institute was founded with the vision of creating a truly collaborative biomedical research environment, and small molecules are a central focus.
Just when we thought that all of the interesting biochemical cofactors have been identified, a new metabolite consisting of thiamine and ATP has been isolated from a number of organisms.
FNR is a global regulator of the Escherichia coli aerobic-anaerobic growth transition and relies on an [Fe-S] cluster cofactor to control its oxygen-dependent activity. Details of the chemical reaction of oxygen with the [Fe-S] cluster reveal how this cofactor is used for oxygen sensing.
Synthetic oligopeptides chemically modified with environmentally sensitive fluorophores enable real-time visualization of peptide binding to MHC molecules. This technology will expand our understanding of antigen presentation and enable visualization of fluorescent peptide binding to a wide variety of receptors in living cells.
Guanine-rich quadruplex-forming sequences within DNA and RNA are prevalent and are suspected of regulating telomere replication, transcription and pre-mRNA splicing. The recent discovery of quadruplex-forming sequences in the 5′ untranslated regions of various proto-oncogenes suggests an important role for such sequences in inhibition of mRNA translation.