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The endoplasmic reticulum (ER), a cellular organelle that forms a cell-spanning network of tubes and sheets, is an important location of protein synthesis and folding. When the ER experiences sustained unfolded protein stress, IRE1 proteins…
The major intrinsic protein (MIP) of the lens fiber cell membrane plays a role in lens biogenesis and maintenance. Its polypeptide chains span the membrane six times, and the protein is naturally divided into two halves. We use modern…
Background: Sphingolipids - as suggested by the prefix in their name - are mysterious molecules, which play surprisingly various roles in opposable cellular processes, like autophagy, apoptosis, proliferation and differentiation. Recently…
The interaction between Ribonucleic Acids (RNAs) and proteins, also called RNA Protein Interaction (RPI), plays an important role in the life activities of organisms, including in various regulatory processes, such as gene splicing, gene…
Recurrence and metastasis have been regarded as two of the greatest obstacles for curing cancer. Cancer stem cell (CSC) have been found. They contribute to cancer development with the distinct feature of recurrence and resistance to the…
Molecular networks guide the biochemistry of a living cell on multiple levels: its metabolic and signalling pathways are shaped by the network of interacting proteins, whose production, in turn, is controlled by the genetic regulatory…
Gene regulatory network of lambda phage is one the best studied model systems in molecular biology. More 50 years of experimental study has provided a tremendous amount of data at all levels: physics, chemistry, DNA, protein, and function.…
Peripheral membrane proteins can reversibly and specifically bind to biological membranes to carry out functions such as cell signalling, enzymatic activity, or membrane remodelling. Structures of these proteins and of their lipid-binding…
Aquaporins (AQPs) are a family of transmembrane channels that are found from archaea, eubacteria, and fungi kingdoms to plants and animals. These proteins play a major role in water and small solutes transport across biological cell…
The increasing interest in photoactivated proteins as natural replacement of standard inorganic materials in photocells drives to the compared analysis of bacteriorhodopsin and proteorhodopsin, two widely diffused proteins belonging to the…
Exchanges between the blood compartment and the surrounding tissues require a tight regulation by the endothelial barrier. Recent reports inferred that VE-cadherin, an endothelial specific cell-cell adhesion molecule, plays a pivotal role…
The present view of biological phenomena is based on a biochemical paradigm that development of living organisms is defined by information stored in a molecular form as some genetic code. However, new discoveries indicate that biological…
In the cell, proteins fold and perform complex functions through global structural rearrangements. Function requires a protein to be at the brink of stability to be susceptible to small environmental fluctuations, yet stable enough to…
Through experimental studies, many details of the pathway of integrin $\alpha_{\rm IIb}\beta_3$ activation by ADP during the platelet aggregation process have been mapped out. ADP binds to two separate G protein coupled receptors on…
The tumor suppressor p53 plays a central role in cell fate decisions after DNA damage. Programmed Cell Death 5 (PDCD5) is known to interact with the p53 pathway to promote cell apoptosis. Recombinant human PDCD5 can significantly sensitize…
Multiple dynamic pathways always exist in biological networks, but their robustness against internal fluctuations and relative stability have not been well recognized and carefully analyzed yet. Here we try to address these issues through…
Feedback is ubiquitous in both biological and engineered control systems. In biology, in addition to typical feedback between plant and controller, we observe feedback pathways within control systems, which we call internal feedback…
Time has come for a survey of our knowledge on the physical interaction between the growth-promoting insulin molecule and retinoblastoma tumor suppressor protein (RB). Theoretical and experimental observations over the past 15 years…
We consider a planetary system consisting of two primaries, namely a star and a giant planet, and a massless secondary, say a terrestrial planet or an asteroid, which moves under their gravitational attraction. We study the dynamics of this…
Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) govern nearly all cellular processes, yet computational methods for identifying binding partners typically produce ranked predictions without mechanistic justification. This creates a fundamental barrier…