Structure and Function of Proteins

News

• 12.09.2017

  Silencing bacteria

  

  In a way, bacteria do talk to each other. They do not communicate by words, but rather by chemical signals. This allows them, for example, to coordinate the penetration into a host or their proliferation. This special type of communication is called "quorum sensing". The term, "quorum", originates from the time of the Roman Empire and corresponds to the smallest…

• 23.02.2015

  An enzyme tunnel in 3D

  

  At high resolution and in 3D - Scientists from the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) and the University of Basel solved the structure of the enzyme, EgtB. Some bacteria utilise EgtB to produce the vitamin ergothioneine, for example Mycobacterium tuberculosis which causes Tuberculosis. Experiments with closely related organisms indicate that the tuberculosis pathogen can be…

• 31.07.2013

  3D molecular syringes

  

  Abdominal pain, fever, diarrhoea – these symptoms could point to an infection with the bacterium Yersinia. The bacterium’s pathogenic potential is based on a syringe-like injection apparatus called injectisome. For the first time, an international team of researchers including scientists at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig, Germany, has unraveled this…

• 26.04.2013

  Protein shaped like a spider

  

  The protein C4BP is similar to a spider in its spatial form with eight “arms”. The structure of the “spider body” has recently been described in detail by researchers from the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig and the Technische Universität Darmstadt. This leads the scientists to unconventional ideas – the protein is possibly suitable as a scaffold for the…

• 09.11.2012

  A ‘finger’ pointing the way to new hepatitis C medication

  

  Some 160 million men and women are infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV), the most common cause of cirrhosis and cancer of the liver. The present standard therapy is thraught with serious side-effects leading to a cure in only half of the patients. New therapies utilise small molecules that inhibit specific steps in the viral reproduction. However, the pathogen rapidly develops…

• 04.12.2011

  Understanding the molecular production line

  

   From deadly toxins to curative antibiotics: The polyketides, a class of biologically active compounds, comprise a multitude of metabolites from plants, fungi, bacteria and other organisms.  How does nature produce this remarkably broad spectrum? Researchers of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI), Braunschweig, the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical…

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Video

• Doppelt aktiviert besser

  Bakterien ist jedes Mittel recht, um einen Organismus zu infizieren. Sie dringen in Zellen ein, wandern durch den Körper, täuschen das Immunsystem oder missbrauchen Abläufe der Wirtszelle für ihre Zwecke. Jedes Bakterium hat dabei seine eigene Methode. Welche Mechanismen Listeria-Bakterien nutzen, haben jetzt Strukturbiologen des Helmholtz-Zentrums für Infektionsforschung (HZI) in Braunschweig herausgefunden. Der Trick der Erreger: Sie binden mit zwei Invasionsproteinen an einen Rezeptor auf menschlichen Zellen und lassen sich in die Zelle einschleusen. Diese Eintrittskarte ist eigentlich für Faktoren reserviert, die das Zellwachstum und die Wundheilung steuern. Sehen Sie, wie Professor Dirk Heinz und seine Arbeitsgruppe den Bakterien auf die Spur gekommen sind…
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