Topic
Microscopy methods that track individual mRNA molecules and nascent peptides in living cells.
Broad and MIT researchers watched single receptors on live cells for over 16 minutes and found that normal HER3 forms stable pairs. Cancer-linked HER3 mutations loosened those pairs, and the idea that this frees HER3 to drive signaling is still the team's working model.
Reality
A Kanazawa-led team used high-speed atomic force microscopy to watch CaMKIIα holoenzymes stay apart in dilute solution and link into chains once they were packed and confined, with activation widening the spacing by about four nanometres.
Reality
The MagLab's 21-tesla spectrometer found tens of thousands of carbon-based molecules in two meteorites, and noncontact atomic force microscopy at Brookhaven pinned down the shape of a handful of them.
Reality
A team spanning OIST, Gifu University, Kyoto University and the National Cancer Center synthesized 39 labelled gangliosides and watched them pair and separate in living membranes, where the pairing rather than the molecule suppressed EGFR.
Reality
Johns Hopkins and NIH researchers report faster, cleaner translation from an alternative mRNA modification than from the chemistry used in COVID-19 mRNA vaccines. Dose economics is the open question.
Reality