Sumiyoshi et al. is a collaboration addressing a question Robert Cross and Jun Yajima first asked themselves almost 20 years ago – would monomeric kinesin molecular motors tethered via surface loops still drive microtubule gliding? It turns out yes! Scanning a dsDNA tether across all exposed loops reveals a core mechanical cycle of the kinesin-1 motor domain that underlies, and is amplified by, linker docking.

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Scientists have developed a new approach to store and distribute crucial protein therapeutics without the need for fridges or freezers.

The breakthrough, published in the journal Nature, could significantly improve accessibility of essential protein-based drugs in developing countries where cold storage infrastructure may be lacking, helping efforts to diagnose and treat more people with serious health conditions.

The researchers, from the Universities of Manchester, Glasgow and Warwick, have designed a hydrogel – a material mostly made of water – that stabilises proteins, protecting its properties and functionality at temperatures as high as 50°C.

nervous system of the gastrointestinal tract, causing problems with peristalsis. Using an experimental model, Khan et al show that if the infection is successfully treated early enough then the damage can be reversed via a repair mechanism involving regeneration of nerve cells in the colon.
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Much of our knowledge about how T. cruzi causes Chagas disease comes from studies of infections in mice, but the data do not capture the full range of clinical outcomes seen in humans. In this paper, we developed a hamster model of T. cruzi infection with two striking features – almost exclusive restriction of chronic infection to a skin tissue niche and a progressive gait dysfunction resembling cerebral palsy.
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The Chagas disease drug discovery pipeline has been focused on a few model T. cruzi strains, but this does not reflect the parasite’s genetic diversity present across the millions of infected people. Here we present an expanded panel of strains engineered to express dual bioluminescent-fluorescent fusion reporter genes that can be used to ensure candidate compounds have in vivo activity across the species before being advanced into clinical testing.
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In this paper we use a combination of cryo-electron microscopy (CryoEM) and total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy (TIRFM) to investigate structural plasticity of the multi-subunit protein kinase called CaMKII. CaMKII plays a critical role in synaptic transmission by neuronal cells and the fact we observe intrinsic variation in stoichiometry and pleomorphology of the complex is important because subunit number is thought to play a critical role in alteration of dendritic spine anatomy, which underlies the structural basis of learning.
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In this paper we describe the structure of the interaction between TACC3 and ch-TOG. A single helix from ch-TOG, normally bound to two hairpins, pops out and binds to the coiled-coil of TACC3. We then isolated Affimers (non-antibody binders) that inhibit this interaction in vitro. Moving into cells, we could express the Affimers to inhibit the ch-TOG–TACC3 interaction and found a new function for these two proteins in stabilizing the pericentriolar material.
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Laura Downie has invented a new way of labelling ER-Membrane Contact Sites in live cells on-demand. It uses the Lamin B Receptor so we called it “LaBeRling”. Unlike other methods, LaBeRling doesn’t distort existing contacts. It can label many different contacts between ER and other organelles (plasma membrane, mitochondria, lysosomes, endosomes, lipid droplets). Here, Laura uses LaBeRling to look at ER-Golgi contact sites in mitosis for the first time.
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A new paper by Associate Professor John MacArtney and colleagues in the Primary Care and Community Network, Warwick Applied Health, takes an in-depth look at how different narratives of the pandemic affected hospice palliative care in the first two-years of Covid-19.