Browse our latest Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics articles

Formins slow elongation of actin filament by either sterically blocking the addition of actin subunits or flattening the helical twist of the filament end.

Slow conformational changes after drug binding rationalize selectivity, affinity and long on-target residence time for kinase inhibitors.

Loss of an amino acid transporter and tissue depletion of nitric oxide worsens the intestinal function of CF mice, a finding that potentially explains variation in disease severity amongst CF individuals.

Analysis of iconic and gating currents of wild type and mutated BK channels reveals a strong inhibition of this channel by extracellular acidification and elucidates the underlying mechanism that is potentially applicable to other voltage-dependent cation channels.

An improved biosensor sheds new light on tension within proteins.

A quantitative understanding of molecular tension sensor function enables the production of unique sensors with desired mechanical properties as well as the ability to distinguish between protein force and protein deformation in mechanosensitive processes.

Structural and functional approaches unambiguously revealed physiologically relevant lateral interactions between FtsZ protofilaments.

Opioid drug efficacy and allosteric modulation is measured using an active state sensor of the mu-opioid receptor.

A combination of experiments, theory, and simulations shows that the elastic softening of microtubules when they are bent arises due to the flattening of their tubular cross-section.

Simulations of the unliganded human hemoglobin tetramer, which for the first time yield a thermodynamically stable system, cast doubts on the use of standard solvent box sizes for molecular dynamics studies of biological macromolecules.