Two years ago, Brown University researchers discovered something startling: Decrease the activity of the cancer-suppressing protein p53 and you can make fruit flies live significantly longer.

A team led by biophysicist Jeremy Smith of the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has taken a significant step toward unraveling the mystery of how proteins fold into unique, three-dimensional shapes.

Brown University chemists have found the origins of an odor – the sweet smell of fresh dirt. In Nature Chemical Biology, the Brown team shows that the protein that makes geosmin – source of the good earth scent – has two similar but distinct halves, each playing a critical role in making this organic compound.

Using atom-level imaging techniques, University of Michigan researchers have revealed important structural details of an enzyme system known as "Mother Nature's blowtorch" for its role in helping the body efficiently break down many drugs and toxins.

Scientists describe a new technique that can detect how proteins undergo changes inside a cell. The technique promises to improve our understanding of how proteins inside cells work and identify how some proteins are not modified properly in common diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular diseases.

In work originating from the Bavarian Research Cooperation Prions (FORPRION), which ended in 2007, a team led by the scientist Prof. Dr. Christine Leib-Mösch has been able to show that prion proteins may activate endogenous retroviruses in infected brain cells.

Osteopontin (OPN), a protein molecule involved in many different cellular processes, plays a significant role in immune deficiency and organ atrophy following chronic physiological stress, resulting in increased susceptibility to illness. These findings appear in the September 4th issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A ground-based, experimental model used to simulate astronaut weightlessness in space has provided Rutgers scientists an opportunity to study the effects of stress on immune organs.

The ability of the body's cells to correctly receive and convey signals is crucial to good health.

The Johns Hopkins scientist who first showed that the absence of the protein myostatin leads to oversized muscles in mice and men has now found a second protein, follistatin, whose overproduction in mice lacking myostatin doubles the muscle-building effect.

Scientists have provided the first large-scale study of proteins inside human cells called Jurkat T cells. The study could provide a better understanding of how proteins inside a specific type of cell work together and may pave the way for future detailed studies of how proteins work in other types of cells.

Researchers in Australia have developed a “switchable” detergent with a wide range of potential applications — from a laundry detergent that hardly needs a rinse cycle to a non-irritating eye rinse to increasing the amount of oil that companies can extract from a well.