Atom-scale models of proteins that incorporate ligands, like drug molecules, show a strong correlation between minimally frustrated binding sites and drug specificity. Such models could lead to better-designed drugs with fewer side effects.
Researchers detail subtle stabilizing effects in cells’ ability to recognize coronaviruses that compromise the immune system. The discovery could lead to new targets to prevent disease.
Rice researchers continue to advance the science of single-molecule machines with a new lineup of nanocars, in anticipation of the next international Nanocar Race in 2022.
Scientists at Rice’s Center for Theoretical Biological Physics detail the structure of dumbbell-like sequences in DNA during interphase that suggest several unseen aspects of chromosome configuration and function.
The National Science Foundation renews the Rice-based Nanotechnology Enabled Water Treatment Center for five years. The Engineering Research Center is dedicated to enabling access to clean water around the world.
Collaborative National Science Foundation grants will use data from internet balloons to study atmospheric gravity waves and their influence on the weather and climate.
A primal mechanism in bacteria that keeps them in their personal Goldilocks zones -- that is, just right -- appears to depend on two random means of regulation, growth and division, that cancel each other out. The same mechanism may give researchers a new perspective on disease, including cancer.