Simplified model catches essential details of how DNA complements find their matches
Until now, scientists have known little about how complementary single strands of DNA court one another before binding to form the classical double helix. But now, molecular dynamics simulations have...
Jan, 01, 2010
For a century, neuroscientists have dissected, traced, eavesdropped on, and are now compiling a seemingly endless cast of players in the nervous system. As we keep gathering more and more molecular...
Apr, 01, 2009
A combination of genomics data and molecular dynamics modeling is sufficient to predict protein complex structure
The zone where two proteins interact presents a possible target for drug design. But identifying possible drugs requires a detailed understanding of the interface between the proteins. Computer...
Apr, 01, 2010
As barriers to massive imaging collections fall, researchers can look at human systems in their entirety rather than in pieces
In the beginning there was the Visible Human. It broke new ground by gathering some 2,000 serial images from a death row inmate’s cadaver, and was the first time researchers had sectioned a...
Jul, 01, 2007
Simulating how cell membranes form vesicles
Whenever a cell needs to get rid of waste, transport materials, sort proteins, or build new organelles, membranes remodel themselves. Often that means forming small enclosed compartments called...
Jul, 01, 2007
Molecular simulation of the ribosome
Inside a cell, the ribosome deciphers genetic codes to produce proteins at unfathomable speeds. Now, researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) have simulated this complex nano-machine in...
Apr, 01, 2006
Computer simulations suggest both existing theories of membrane fusion are valid
Cell membranes fuse with other membranes to allow material in and out. If incoming material includes invading viruses, that can be bad news for the cells. Until recently, the process of membrane...
Jan, 01, 2007
How errors in data, software, and methodology can teach us how to do better
In 2006, a paper in Nature Medicine suggested a novel and potentially revolutionary method for predicting patient responses to cancer therapies using gene signatures. The finding piqued the interest...
Sep, 01, 2011
According to traditional theory, lipid membranes consist of a “fluid-mosaic” in which molecular components, including membrane proteins, are randomly distributed and move freely against a...
Apr, 01, 2007
Postdocs get a glance at the entire field and their first inside view of NIH grant-making
If he were a graduate student now, Francis Collins would be studying computational biology. That’s what the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) told a rapt audience at the...
Feb, 19, 2013