Latest José Onuchic Stories

Rice University Cancer researchers from Rice University suggest that a new man-made drug that's already proven effective at killing cancer and drug-resistant bacteria could best deliver its knockout blow when used in combination with drugs made from naturally occurring toxins. "One of the oldest tricks in fighting is the one-two punch -- you distract your opponent with one attack and deliver a knockout blow with another," said José Onuchic of Rice's Center for Theoretical Biological...

Rice, UCSD scientists study genomes to reveal contacts, refine methods for protein-folding prediction José Onuchic has become an expert at connecting the dots, but finding connections merely implied by the dots … well, that’s quite a trick. The Rice University biophysicist and his team have created a tool to do just that for proteins and, in the process, have advanced the art of predicting their form and function. In this case, the dots are amino acid molecules known as residues...

When faced with life-or-death situations, bacteria — and maybe even human cells — use an extremely sophisticated version of "game theory" to consider their options and decide upon the best course of action, scientists reported here today. In a presentation at the 243rd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society, they said microbes "play" a version of the classic "Prisoner's Dilemma" game. José Onuchic, Ph.D., who...

Study finds protein's entwined arm movements may control fate of potentially toxic payload Like a magician employing sleight of hand, the protein mitoNEET -- a mysterious but important player in diabetes, cancer and aging -- draws the eye with a flurry of movement in one location while the subtle, more crucial action takes place somewhere else. Using a combination of laboratory experiments and computer modeling, scientists from Rice University and the University of California, San Diego...