(How) Cells Talk to Each Other

ISTA Scientists Successfully Model Cell Dynamics

24-Jul-2023 - Like us, cells communicate. Well, in their own special way. Using waves as their common language, cells tell one another where and when to move. They talk, they share information, and they work together – much like the interdisciplinary team of researchers from the Institute of Science and ...

DNA Organization in Real-Time

How the motion of DNA controls gene activity

04-Jul-2023 - Despite being densely packed to fit into the nucleus, chromosomes storing our genetic information are always in motion. This allows specific regions to come into contact and thereby activate a gene. A group of scientists from the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA), Princeton ...

How Cells Feel Curvature

Scientists find mechanism that allows cells to sense the curvature of tissue around them

22-Nov-2021 - Cells in your body cannot see, but they can feel their surroundings and their own shape. Scientists at the University of Mons and the Institute of Science and Technology (IST) Austria now showed via both - experiments and theory - how cells can sense the curvature of tissue around them and how ...

Frozen: Cutting-edge technology reveals structures within cells

05-Jan-2021 - New methods enable scientists at IST Austria to take a look at the innermost of cells: high-resolution images of deep-frozen cells show structures that previously could only be guessed at. Temperatures of minus 196 degrees Celsius enable high-resolution imaging of the cell’s interior. Researchers ...

Structure of ATPase, the world’s smallest turbine, solved

Location of the permeability transition pore found

17-Sep-2020 - The chemical ATP, adenosine triphosphate, is the fuel that powers all life. ATP is found in all known forms of life, where it provides energy to drive muscle contraction, impulse propagation and chemical synthesis. Despite ATP’s central role, the structure of the enzyme generating ATP, F1Fo-ATP ...

Structure of protein nano turbine revealed

Scientists determine the first structure of a cell’s rotary engine using state-of-art microscopy

02-Sep-2019 - Cells rely on protein complexes known as ATP synthases or ATPases for their energy needs – adenosine triphosphate (ATP) molecules power most of the processes sustaining life. Structural biologist Professor Leonid Sazanov and his research group from the Institute of Science and Technology Austria ...

High-end microscopy reveals structure and function of crucial metabolic enzyme

30-Aug-2019 - The enzyme transhydrogenase plays a central role in regulating metabolic processes in animals and humans alike. Malfunction can lead to serious disorders. For the first time, structural biologists at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (IST Austria) have now visualized and analyzed ...

How neurons and glia cells are created in the developing brain

08-May-2017 - Neurons and glia are the cells that make up our brain. In the cortex, the brain area that enables us to think, speak and be conscious, neurons and most glia are produced by a type of neural stem cell, called radial glia progenitors (RGPs). It is vital that no errors occur in this process as ...