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Electrostatic interactions help an enzyme do its job
A catalytic enzyme facilitates a reaction by bringing one or more molecules into its active site and there providing an environment conducive to the reaction.
Bacterial proteins co-opt host cell skeletal elements to spread infection
Rickettsia bacteria are transmitted by the bites of infected ticks and other arthropods, and cause diseases such as typhus and spotted fever.
New high energy beamline as state-of-the-art grain mapping facility
High-energy (HE) x-ray diffraction (energies 30 keV and above) have long been a mainstay at CHESS, supporting many user groups on a wide variety of in-house developed techniques.
Proteins at work inside a membrane
Proteases, enzymes that cleave proteins, are found both free-floating and embedded in membranes. Reactions involving the former are well understood, but the workings of the latter have remained mysterious – how are reactions controlled inside the viscous, two-dimensional membrane, from which water is excluded?
Unwrapping DNA from nucleosomes
DNA in the cell must be stored in a compact form (or it wouldn't fit) that also allows it to be translated to RNA, and to be copied when a cell divides.
Lynden Archer receives chemical engineering award
Lynden Archer, the William C. Hooey Director and Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, has received the 2014 Nanoscale Science and Engineering Forum (NSEF) Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AICHE).
Watching DNA unwind
Dynamic protein-nucleic acid complexes are central to molecular biology. For example, protein-RNA interactions hold the ribosome together, while protein-DNA interactions contain DNA in chromatin.
Paving the way for BioSAXS users
BioSAXS experiments require careful preparation. Many users (even though they may be experienced crystallographers) are new to the technique, and MacCHESS' Richard Gillilan and Alvin Acerbo spend a great deal of time “holding hands” of biologists using the BioSAXS facility for the first time.