Lori Passmore and her group have used electron cryo-microscopy to solve the structure of CPF, a protein complex critical for gene expression. Understanding the structure and function of intact CPF, and how it is assembled, has been a central question in the field of gene expression for decades. [A Log-in or subscription may be required […]
LMB In The News
PINK1 caught on the brink of phosphorylation
Scientists have caught a rare view of an unusual kinase poised to phosphorylate its substrate. Led by David Komander, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England, U.K., the researchers reported the crystal structure of the kinase PINK1 bound to ubiquitin in the October 30 Nature. “We captured a pre-catalytic state, a snapshot of PINK1 […]
Fundamental rules for how the brain controls movements
Using the nematode as one test system, scientists at CCNR have spent the past several years understanding how a network controls itself—for instance, which individual neurons in the worm’s brain are in charge of a backward wiggle. In research published in Nature, they describe for the first time their ability to predict, test, and confirm with […]
Researchers “drug the undruggable”
A new approach to targeting key cancer-linked proteins, thought to be ‘undruggable’, has been discovered through an alliance between industry and academia created by Cancer Research UK. David Komander’s group in the LMB is one of the groups involved in this unique collaboration, that shows that two novel and specific small-molecule inhibitors developed by the alliance […]
The birth of the cool
Super cool microscopy wins the 2017 Nobel prize in chemistry: includes interview with LMB’s Richard Henderson. More…
Electron cryo-microscopy wins chemistry Nobel
Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson were awarded the prize on 4 October for their work in developing electron cryo-microscopy (cryo-EM), a technique that fires beams of electrons at proteins that have been frozen in solution, to deduce the biomolecules’ structure. More…