Protein mingling under blue light
Friday, June 23, 2017 - 08:32
in Biology & Nature
One of the current challenges in biology is to understand rapidly-changing phenomena. Interestingly, only a small fraction of them is due to proteins acting in isolation, the majority of biological events are regulated by proteins acting together in clusters. Researchers at the Center for Cognition and Sociality, within the Institute for Basic Science (IBS), have developed a new tool, called "CRY2clust", to trigger protein cluster formation in response to blue light. This new technique has a much faster response rate and higher sensitivity to light than existent methods. Published in Nature Communications, this new tool could advance our understanding on innumerable molecular and cellular mechanisms.