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The Dance of NF-kB
Unfolded parts of NF-κB and IκBα run the cell's inflammatory switch The textbook story of the transcription factor NF-κB is about two folded proteins that form a pair and trigger specific region of DNA. NF-kB is most often used to refer to the very common version of NF-kB that is a pair of molecules, p50 paring with p65, from the family of 5 NF-kB molecules that form many different pairs. The name NF-kB, Nuclear Factor kappa beta, comes from the immune cell where it was first
jonlieff
Oct 116 min read


Intelligent Conversation between Viral RNA and Its Protein
The hepatitis D virus possesses the smallest known human genome—only about 1,680 nucleotides encoding essentially a single protein. Yet from this remarkably limited genetic information emerges a molecular system capable of regulating genome copying, altering its developmental state, exploiting dozens of cellular pathways, and assembling new virus particles with extraordinary precision. The sophistication of HDV does not arise because either its RNA or its protein is independe
jonlieff
Sep 25 min read


Molecular Mind and Cellular Motors 5: Kinesin Motors––Walking, Communicating Molecular Creatures
Kinesin is an individual cellular motor made of just four protein chains that senses, navigates, makes decisions, and walks with two feet, step by step like a human. It picks up a variety of cargo, such as vesicles, mitochondria, molecular complexes, or messenger RNA and walks, one deliberate step at a time, along a highway of protein cables toward a precise destination. Walking upright on two legs is rare in nature—humans, ostriches, penguins, kangaroos, and a few others—e

Jon Lieff
May 254 min read
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