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rna

Year
2 July 2024

IIT-EMBL: New molecules to modulate gene expression

Science & Technology A new research paper published in Nature Communications lays the groundwork for the development of new drugs specific to genetic mutations or alterations responsible for the onset of tumours or genetic diseases.

2024

science-technology

25 June 2024 In the front, a 3D model of three molecules bound together: METTL6 in (orange), serine tRNA synthetase in (shades of lilac) and serine tRNA (black). In the background an illustration of a construction site. Two trucks with ‘UGA’ and ‘AGA’ written on them are visible at the bottom.

An enzyme with a smart friend

Science & Technology EMBL Grenoble’s Kowalinski Group analysed the structure of an enzyme responsible for modifying tRNA molecules to fine-tune protein production. They discovered that to distinguish almost identical, yet different, tRNA molecules, the enzyme uses help from another enzyme – a type of cooperation…

2024

science-technology

21 December 2023 On the left: image of a protein complex in a shape of a yellow doughnut with blue elements. Above it is a drawing of nucleic acid with arrows connecting nitrogenous bases to different points in the protein complex. On the right: a line with peaks indicating the peaks recorded in mass spectrometry. Above two peaks, there are smaller depictions of the doughnut-shaped complex, one with a blue element and one without.

RNA to rule them all

Science & Technology The Kosinski Group at EMBL Hamburg collaborated with other groups in Hamburg to reveal critical steps in Lassa virus ribonucleoparticle assembly and recruitment, and the crucial role played by RNA in in the Lassa virus life cycle.

2023

sciencescience-technology

19 December 2023 Cartoon showing nanoparticles on a conveyer belt passing through a machine. They are ordered by size and the smallest one pass through the machine before the bigger ones. A ray of light enters the machine, where a nanoparticle is being scanned, and leaves it on the other side. A monitor on top of the scanning machine shows an X-ray of a nanoparticle.

‘X-ray vision’ for investigation of mRNA nanomedicines

Science & Technology EMBL Hamburg, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Postnova Analytics GmbH, and BioNTech SE have developed a new method to quantitatively investigate sizes of nanoparticles containing mRNA. It may become an important part of regular characterisation of mRNA nanomedicines in the future.

2023

sciencescience-technology

2 October 2023 Outline of a human, purple against red background. Red RNA strand in the background, electrocardiogram across the image. On the right, outline of a Nobel prize medal.

mRNA nanomedicines scoop Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Science & Technology Pioneers of the mRNA nanomedicines technology receive 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or medicine. EMBL is pleased to have supported the development of the application of the mRNA nanomedicine technology through our long-standing collaboration with BioNTech, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and…

2023

sciencescience-technology

18 July 2022 Large, elongated purple molecule has an on/off switch on it pointed to on.

The retron switch

Science & Technology EMBL researchers now understand the function of an elusive small DNA in bacteria and have developed a tool that can be used to better understand what might ‘switch on’ bacterial immune defences.

2022

sciencescience-technology

6 April 2022 Portrait photo of Matthias Hentze surrounded by a colourful background

Matthias Hentze receives Centenary Award

EMBL AnnouncementsLab Matters EMBL Heidelberg’s Matthias Hentze receives the Biochemical Society’s Centenary Award for his discoveries in RNA biology.

2022

embl-announcementslab-matters

4 March 2022 Science art expressing the concept of transcriptional neighbourhoods regulating transcript isoform lengths and expression levels.

Understanding genomes, piece by piece

Science & Technology Genomes are made up of thousands of individual pieces – genes – which are expressed at different levels. Researchers at EMBL have shed light on how the placement of a gene affects its expression, as well as that of its neighbours.

2022

sciencescience-technology

9 December 2021 Colourful interwoven coils are displayed against a grid of small black and white photographic images.

A gallery of human RNA polymerases

Science & Technology New structural biology research provides fundamental information critical to understanding enzyme mutations connected to rare diseases and cancers.

2021

sciencescience-technology

7 December 2021 A cartoon image showing a person's arm and a needle with a vaccine being injected into it. The text on the left reads: "EMBL research: How structural biologists at EMBL Hamburg help to develop and improve RNA vaccines"

How structural biology helps to make RNA vaccines

Science & Technology RNA vaccines, such as the ones for COVID-19, represent a new approach in vaccine technology. Cy Jeffries, faculty staff scientist at EMBL Hamburg, explains the clever technology behind RNA vaccines, and how structural biology contributes to its development. EMBL Hamburg collaborated on several…

2021

sciencescience-technology

12 July 2021 Close-up illustration of the Kinesin-1 protein, intertwined with the aTm1 protein in a helix, next to loopy mRNA molecules.

A model of cooperation for transporting mRNA

Science & Technology EMBL scientists generate a high-resolution crystal structure of the Kinesin-1/aTm1 transport complex in the fruit fly.

2021

sciencescience-technology

9 June 2021 R2DT software for RNA structures

Visualising RNA structures using R2DT

Science & Technology New software enables scientists to visualise RNA secondary structures using the world’s largest RNA structure dataset.

2021

sciencescience-technology

8 June 2021 Purple, blue and yellow dots on a black background.

Dream team

Science & Technology At EMBL, we have many dream teams – groups of individuals who support each other, innovate, and work together. One of those dream teams bridges two core facilities at EMBL Rome.

2021

picture-of-the-weekscience-technology

8 February 2021 Illustration of a laboratory flask to the left of a microscope against an orange/grey background with a zoomed-in cut-out of the microscope view, which is colourful molecules.

A better look at a human RNA polymerase

Science & Technology New EMBL research shows where & to what degree a component of cellular machinery known as RNA Pol III is mutated and becomes problematic.

2021

sciencescience-technology

2 February 2021 A bacterial cell with the parts needed for information flow from DNA to messenger RNA to protein highlighted in different colours.

The central dogma of molecular biology

Science & Technology This colourful image shows biological information flow in action: It’s a supramolecular assembly of DNA, RNA and proteins, observed directly inside a bacterial cell while turning genetic information into protein.

2021

picture-of-the-weekscience-technology

15 January 2021 young man with beard and mustache stands in front of window with blurry background

Welcome: Olivier Duss

Lab MattersPeople & Perspectives One of EMBL’s newest group leaders, Olivier Duss, will explore how RNA folds into functional structures and how it works with proteins to control a diverse range of activities in the cell.

2021

lab-matterspeople-perspectives

4 January 2021 photo of white nodule that is a kefir grain sitting in front of a milk bottle with two inset images -- one looks like yellow and tan circles, and the other is animated versions of the kefir grains

In kefir, microbial teamwork makes the dream work

Science & Technology Researchers discovered the dominant species of bacteria in kefir grains cannot endure without other species that help the 'team' survive.

2021

sciencescience-technology

2 December 2020 Curly-shaped trypanosomes, grey with bright specks of green fluorescent protein, against a grey background.

Tackling tropical diseases

Science & Technology Members of the EMBL community are working to improve our understanding of the parasites that cause malaria and sleeping sickness

2020

sciencescience-technology

1 December 2020 The image shows the beamline P12 at EMBL Hamburg. In the centre, several cylindrical elements are connected into a pipe-like structure. In the front, it is connected to a white box-shaped device, and several smaller devices and cables visible around. There is also a grid visible around the beamline.

EMBL facilities support development of RNA vaccines

Science & Technology Biotechnology company BioNTech and Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz conduct collaborative research with EMBL scientists at the beamline P12 in Hamburg

2020

sciencescience-technology

17 June 2020 Crystal selection for X-ray diffraction experiments.

Investigating the structure and mechanisms of coronavirus biomolecules

Science & Technology While global research on coronaviruses has shed light on the function of many SARS-CoV-2 proteins, the role of some crucial components remains unknown. Researchers at EMBL Grenoble will use a range of structural biology methods to try to solve some of the puzzles of the molecular mechanics of…

2020

sciencescience-technology

29 April 2020 The Influenza virus

Understanding the influenza virus

Science & Technology The infectious disease commonly known as flu is caused by the influenza virus. It spreads around the world in seasonal outbreaks, causing millions of infections and hundreds of thousands of deaths each year. Stephen Cusack, Head of EMBL Grenoble, has been studying different aspects of the influenza…

2020

sciencescience-technology

27 April 2020 Artistic rendering of an RNA-binding protein interacting with an RNA molecule.

Helping researchers identify host proteins used by coronavirus

Science & Technology EMBL scientists working in the groups of Matthias Hentze and Wolfgang Huber have created RBPbase – a database of RNA-binding proteins – to assist the identification of proteins that interact with the SARS-CoV-2 RNA genome.

2020

sciencescience-technology

5 February 2020

Characterising RNA alterations in cancer

Science & Technology The largest and most comprehensive catalogue of cancer-specific RNA alterations reveals new insights into the cancer genome.

2020

sciencescience-technology

2 November 2018 RNA-binding protein

Catching up on protein dynamics

Science & Technology The Hentze Lab enhanced a RNA-interactome capture technique to pave the way towards medical progress

2018

sciencescience-technology

14 May 2018 EMBL alumna Elisa Izaurralde.

Obituary: Elisa Izaurralde

People & Perspectives Elisa Izaurralde, EMBL alumna, has passed away

2018

alumnipeople-perspectives

20 December 2017 In this representation of influenza polymerase, a molecule (white) that strongly inhibits the enzyme’s activity is shown bound to the region of the enzyme (red) that usually binds the cap section of mRNA. IMAGE: EMBL/Cusack Group

Futures: Unravelling influenza

Science & Technology ERC grantee Stephen Cusack shares his vision for the next ten years

2017

sciencescience-technology

28 July 2016 Landline vs. smartphone: the RNA-binding domain lets proteins do more than just talk to other proteins

Discovering protein smartphones

Science & Technology New technique reveals uncharted docking sites in RNA-binding proteins

2016

sciencescience-technology

9 July 2015

DNA protection, inch by inch

Science & Technology European team identify mechanism for producing piRNAs that silence jumping genes in germline cells.

2015

sciencescience-technology

10 September 2014 RNAcentral launched

RNAcentral Station

RNAcentral is the first unified resource for all types of non-coding RNA data.

2014

science

6 August 2014

Clarity in the cold

How fruit flies beat the cold, plus the value of precisely controlled experiments and detailed analysis

2014

science

1 July 2014

Nothing but blue skies

Focusing on basic research is crucial for the development of more advanced genetics techniques

2014

science

23 October 2013

Bigger, better, faster

Science & Technology The molecular machine that makes essential components of ribosomes – the cell’s protein factories – is like a Swiss-army knife, researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, and the Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas in Madrid, Spain, have found.…

2013

sciencescience-technology

13 October 2013

Choreographed origami

Science & Technology An important step in building ribosomes – the cell’s protein factories – is like a strictly choreographed dance, scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, have discovered. To build these factories, other ‘machines’ inside the cell have to…

2013

sciencescience-technology

24 April 2013

Pushing the boundaries of transcription

Science & Technology Like musicians in an orchestra who have the same musical score but start and finish playing at different intervals, cells with the same genes start and finish transcribing them at different points in the genome. For the first time, researchers at EMBL have described the striking diversity of…

2013

sciencescience-technology

28 February 2013

Zeroing in on heart disease

Science & Technology Studies screening the genome of hundreds of thousands of individuals (known as Genome-wide association studies or GWAS) have linked more than 100 regions in the genome to the risk of developing cardiovascular disease. Researchers from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and the…

2013

sciencescience-technology

6 January 2013

Protein production: going viral

Science & Technology A research team of scientists from EMBL Grenoble and the IGBMC in Strasbourg, France, have, for the first time, described in molecular detail the architecture of the central scaffold of TFIID: the human protein complex essential for transcription from DNA to mRNA. The study, published today…

2013

sciencescience-technology

31 May 2012 Word cloud of proteins

The cell’s ‘New World’

Science & Technology In one of the most famous faux pas of exploration, Columbus set sail for India and instead ‘discovered’ America. Similarly, when scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, set out to find enzymes – the proteins that carry out chemical…

2012

sciencescience-technology

4 February 2009 High resolution image of the key domain of the influenza virus polymerase. The active site responsible for RNA cleavage is shown in red. Its activity is crucial for the virus to multiply in human cells

New findings reveal how influenza virus hijacks human cells

Influenza is and remains a disease to reckon with. Seasonal epidemics around the world kill several hundred thousand people every year. In the light of looming pandemics if bird flu strains develop the ability to infect humans easily, new drugs and vaccines are desperately sought. Researchers at…

2009

science

17 December 2007

An ambulance man for muscle damage

It does not take much to injure a muscle. Sometimes one sudden, inconsiderate movement does the job. Unfortunately, damaged muscles are not as efficient at repair as other tissues such as bone. Researchers of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory’s Mouse Biology Unit (EMBL), Italy, and…

2007

science

25 August 2006

A switch between life and death

Cells in an embryo divide at an amazing rate to build a whole body, but this growth needs to be controlled. Otherwise the result may be defects in embryonic development or cancer in adults. Controlling growth requires that some cells divide while others die; their fates are determined by signals…

2006

science

6 October 2005

Defusing dangerous mutations

Mutations in genes are the basis of evolution, so we owe our existence to them. Most mutations are harmful, however, because they cause cells to build defective proteins. So cells have evolved quality control mechanisms that recognize and counteract genetic mistakes. Now scientists of the Molecular…

2005

science

22 August 2005

Public collections of DNA and RNA sequence reach 100 gigabases

Lab Matters The world’s three leading public repositories for DNA and RNA sequence information have reached 100 gigabases (100,000,000,000 bases; the ‘letters’ of the genetic code) of sequence. Thanks to their data exchange policy, which has paved the way for the global exchange of many types…

2005

lab-matters

12 July 2005

Hunt for human genes involved in cell division under way

Lab Matters A systematic search through human genes has begun at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany. Working within the MitoCheck consortium that includes 10 other institutes throughout Europe, the EMBL scientists will silence all human genes, one-by-one, to find those…

2005

lab-matters

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