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Biophysics is the study of physical phenomena and physical processes in living things, on scales spanning molecules, cells, tissues and organisms. Biophysicists use the principles and methods of physics to understand biological systems. It is an interdisciplinary science, closely related to quantitative and systems biology.
A clear picture of how and why cells inevitably lose viability is still lacking. A dynamical systems view of starving bacteria points to a continuous energy expenditure needed for maintaining the right osmotic pressure as an important factor.
Liquid droplets form in cells to concentrate specific biomolecules (while excluding others) in order to perform specific functions. The molecular mechanisms that determine whether different macromolecules undergo co-partitioning or exclusion has so far remained elusive. Now, two studies uncover key principles underlying this selectivity.
MISATO, a dataset for structure-based drug discovery combines quantum mechanics property data and molecular dynamics simulations on ~20,000 protein–ligand structures, substantially extends the amount of data available to the community and holds potential for advancing work in drug discovery.
Biological clocks can be used to evaluate the age of a cell or organisms. This Perspective proposes the concept of an intrinsically disordered protein (IDP) clock, whereby the aggregation state of an IDP encodes for a biological ageing signature.
Sialin transports multiple substrates including sialic acid out of lysosomes, and neurotransmitters into synaptic vesicles. This study reports the cryo-EM structures of Sialin in multiple states revealing its transport and pH-sensing mechanisms.
When bacteria starve, their cytoplasm detaches from the cell wall. A model now shows that this process determines bacterial death rates and can be controlled to keep bacteria viable in a starved state.
Here, using cryo-ET, the 3D structures of individual nucleosome particles were characterized to observe changes under varying ionic strengths and in the presence of protein H1, revealing key regulatory roles in chromatin organization dynamics.
The Omp85 superfamily is a widely distributed class of outer membrane proteins found in Gram-negative bacteria, mitochondria and chloroplasts. Here the authors show that PlpD has a different structure and topology than other Omp85 proteins that have been studied.
A clear picture of how and why cells inevitably lose viability is still lacking. A dynamical systems view of starving bacteria points to a continuous energy expenditure needed for maintaining the right osmotic pressure as an important factor.
Liquid droplets form in cells to concentrate specific biomolecules (while excluding others) in order to perform specific functions. The molecular mechanisms that determine whether different macromolecules undergo co-partitioning or exclusion has so far remained elusive. Now, two studies uncover key principles underlying this selectivity.
MISATO, a dataset for structure-based drug discovery combines quantum mechanics property data and molecular dynamics simulations on ~20,000 protein–ligand structures, substantially extends the amount of data available to the community and holds potential for advancing work in drug discovery.