Latest Actin Stories

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March 2, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Energid Technologies Corporation has released version 3.0 of its Actin software toolkit. Actin provides advanced control tools and digital simulation for roboticists. Robots are growing in capability and economic impact. Much of this growth is driven by faster computer algorithms and software. Energid's Actin toolkit embodies this driving force. Actin allows roboticists to design complex robots using Computer Aided Design (CAD)...

Working in the emerging field of systems biology, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers mathematically predicted how bacteria that cause food poisoning hijack a cell's sense of direction and then confirmed those predictions in living cells. The study proposed a new model to explain how mammalian cells establish the sense of direction necessary to move, as well as the mechanism that a disease-causing form of E. coli bacteria employ to hijack that ability. Cells need to orient...

The proteins actin, myosin and titin are big players in the business of muscle contraction. Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Hamburg, Germany, have now examined another muscle protein – myomesin – which they discovered can stretch up to two-and-a-half times its length, unfolding in a way that was previously unknown. The study is published 14 February in the open-access, online journal PLoS Biology. Myomesin links muscle filaments, which stretch and...

A new study in the Journal of General Physiology (www.jgp.org) uses state-of-the-art fluorescence microscopy to provide a striking 3-D picture of how class V myosins (myoV) "walk" along their actin track. The myosin superfamily of mechanoenzymes, more commonly referred to as molecular motors, play an important role in muscle contraction and other basic cellular processes. MyoV, one of the most highly studied molecular motors, has the ability to travel long distances by taking multiple...

[ Watch the Video ] A biological model system that dead-ends in an 'absorbing state' Supplied with sufficient energy, a freight train would ride the rails as far as they go. But nature also knows systems whose dynamics suddenly turn into a kind of endless loop. Like in a hamster wheel, a train caught up in such a system would continue running, but without moving forward. Scientists from the Cluster of Excellence Nanosystems Initiative Munich have now succeeded in building a simple model...

A new technique developed by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine allows researchers to identify the exact DNA sequences and locations bound by regulatory RNAs. This information is necessary to understand how the recently identified RNA molecules control the expression of neighboring and distant genes. The study offers a startling glimpse into the intricate world of gene expression and how RNA, once thought to be only a lowly cellular messenger, actively unlocks our...

Researchers have found that a protein linked to cell division and migration and tied to increased cell proliferation in ovarian tumors is also present at high levels in breast cancer specimens and cell lines. The protein, dubbed "UNC-45A," was also determined to be more active in breast cancer cells than in normal breast cells. University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston scientists describe these findings and others in a paper now online in the Journal of Molecular Biology. "As a...

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- A new tool allows scientists to see the immune system like never before. The device, a stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscope, provides sharp images at extremely small scales. It shows how granules from natural killer cells pass through openings in dynamic cell structures to destroy tumor cells and cells infected by viruses. "This new technology enables researchers to see individual elements previously below the physical limits of imaging using light,"...

With New Tool, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Researchers Show How Immune System Attacks Infected Cells PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 14, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Making use of a new "super resolution" microscope that provides sharp images at extremely small scales, scientists have achieved unprecedented views of the immune system in action. The new tool, a stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscope, shows how granules from natural killer cells pass through openings in dynamic cell...

With new tool, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia researchers show how immune system attacks infected cells Making use of a new "super resolution" microscope that provides sharp images at extremely small scales, scientists have achieved unprecedented views of the immune system in action. The new tool, a stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscope, shows how granules from natural killer cells pass through openings in dynamic cell structures to destroy their targets: tumor cells and...