When someone is confronted with ‘foreign’ material, be it viruses, bacteria, fungi, but also donor organs following transplantation, immune cells called T cells come into action to inactivate and destroy the ”foreign”…

The blood vessels form a widely ramified supply system that passes through our body from head to toe. They serve as pathways for blood cells and transport oxygen as well as nutrients into each individual organ. In the…

The protein complex mTORC1 promotes muscle growth and is important for the self-cleaning process of the muscle cells. The role of mTORC1 in skeletal muscle fibers in response to nerve injury has so far not been studied in…

Every single cell of our body contains hundreds of tiny power plants, the mitochondria, which produce the energy required by the body, whether it be for walking, digesting or to ponder ideas. This inevitably generates…

Cells are the building blocks of all living creatures. In order to form a complex organism and stay healthy, cells need to communicate with each other and integrate the response within themselves. A group of enzymes,…

In the past years, AlphaFold has revolutionised protein science. This Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool was trained on protein data collected by life scientists for over 50 years, and is able to predict the 3D shape of…

Genes provide the blueprint for life, determining when and where proteins are made. This process involves two key steps: transcription, from DNA to messenger mRNA (mRNA), and translation, where mRNA is decoded into proteins.…

Walking, breathing, or writing – these movements would not be possible without our muscles. The instructions are given by the nerves that communicate with the muscles through neuromuscular junctions. Damage to or loss of…

Our body keeps bacterial pathogens under control by restricting their access to essential nutrients such as iron. Iron is crucial for all living organisms. When bacteria are deprived of iron, they stop growing and…

G protein-coupled receptors are embedded in the cell membrane and transmit signals from the outside to the inside of the cell. Because of their vast diversity and crucial role in the body, GPCRs are targeted by many drugs,…