All proteins are made of basic secondary structure units, either α-helix or β-sheets, determined by hydrogen bonding between the amino acids within a peptide chain. On a larger scale, structures are ...

A study has found that an ancient protein motif that binds to nucleic acids is functionally "ambidextrous." This means that the motif can interact with both natural and mirror-image nucleic acids, an ...

Capping protein (CP) has critical roles in actin assembly in vivo and in vitro. CP binds with high affinity to the barbed end of actin filaments, blocking the addition and loss of actin subunits.

Conserved sequence motifs within intrinsically disordered protein regions act as evolutionary units that support phase separation and membraneless organelle formation.

It is difficult to underestimate the importance of telomerase, an enzyme that is the hallmark of both aging and the uncontrolled cell division associated with cancer. In an effort to understand and ...

In a recent study posted to the bioRxiv* preprint server, researchers performed a ProP-PD (proteomic peptide phage display) analysis to identify peptides from intrinsically disordered human (host) ...

Boston-based Motif FoodWorks (formerly Motif Ingredients) - which is deploying synthetic biology to engineer microbes to produce proteins with a fraction of the environmental footprint of their ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Synthetic biology author. This article is more than 4 years old. Motif’s prolamin technology in action via a plant-based cheese ...

Researchers found a rare example of an ancient protein that can still function in a molecular mirror world – offering new clues about the evolutionary history of proteins that bind to nucleic acids.