(Nanowerk News) Drawing inspiration from natural sensory systems, an MIT-led team has designed a novel sensor that could detect the same molecules that naturally occurring cell receptors can identify.

Scientists have long known that cellular membranes vary in thickness, but measuring those differences inside actual cells has been out of reach. Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest sci-tech ...

Researchers have identified a new function of a well-known enzyme: the signal peptidase complex is responsible for the quality control of membrane proteins. The discovery of this new function for a ...

The upper size limit on cell-penetrating drug molecules may be much higher than medicinal chemists had thought. A research team reports that molecules believed to be much too large to diffuse across ...

Special proteins -- known as membrane transporters -- are key to the mobility of sperm cells. A research team has, with the aid of cryo-electron microscopy, succeeded in decoding the structure of such ...

Membrane proteins are vital for cellular signaling, transport, and communication, making them attractive drug targets despite their challenging properties. Advances in mass spectrometry have enabled ...

All living organisms are made of cells, which are the smallest unit of life. Plants and animals have up to trillions of cells that work together to produce ever more intricate organization and ...

image: An MIT-led team designed a sensor that may be deployed to screen patients for hard-to-diagnose cancers, or metastatic tumors. The device draws inspiration from the membrane that surrounds all ...