• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Saturday, October 11, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News

Researchers imitate molecular crowding in cells

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
March 1, 2017
in Science News
Reading Time: 2 mins read
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram
IMAGE

Credit: University of Basel, Department of Chemistry

Enzymes behave differently in a test tube compared with the molecular scrum of a living cell. Chemists from the University of Basel have now been able to simulate these confined natural conditions in artificial vesicles for the first time. As reported in the academic journal Small, the results are offering better insight into the development of nanoreactors and artificial organelles.

The cell interior is densely crowded with hundreds of thousands of macromolecules like proteins, DNA, RNA and smaller molecules forming viscous water solution. In science, this constriction is called "molecular crowding". The effect can lead to fundamental changes in several of a molecule's characteristics.

The behavior of a "free" protein or enzyme in a test tube does not necessarily follow natural processes, as the cell provides high viscos environment and confined space. In the lab, it had previously only been possible to simulate confined space but not crowded milieu simultaneously.

Imitating mother nature

A team of researchers led by Professor Wolfgang Meier of the University of Basel has now developed a system that comes a significant step closer to the natural model, as for the first time it simulated the crowding effect inside a closed vesicle. "The environment inside a cell has a major effect on the chemical reactions that take place there, so we wanted to copy this in a way coming close to nature as possible," said Professor Meier.

To create the cellular surroundings, the researchers from the Department of Chemistry made nanoscopic vesicles, so-called polymersomes, and loaded these with the horseradish peroxidase enzyme and a highly viscous solution as crowding components. The kinetics of chemical reactions by a given enzyme could thus be determined for the first time, taking "molecular crowding" into account.The results show that both factors have a strong influence on enzymatic kinetics.

Controlling the speed of chemical reactions

"Our design takes into account the natural environmental factors that influence enzymes' performance, and therefore brings us significantly further forward in the development of nanoreactors," said Professor Meier. The results demonstrate that the behavior of enzymes can be specifically controlled using the crowding effect – an important factor in developing artificial organelles for enzyme replacement therapy.

###

Media Contact

Prof. Dr. Wolfgang P. Meier
[email protected]
0041-612-073-802
@UniBasel_en

http://www.unibas.ch/

############

Story Source: Materials provided by Scienmag

Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

Rethinking the Necessity of Prescribing Cascades

October 11, 2025

Snacking Habits Linked to Sleep Issues in Children

October 11, 2025

KLF5 Boosts Lung Cancer Spread via RHPN2 Pathway

October 11, 2025

Creating Trauma-Informed Care for the Homeless

October 11, 2025
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • Sperm MicroRNAs: Crucial Mediators of Paternal Exercise Capacity Transmission

    1206 shares
    Share 482 Tweet 301
  • New Study Reveals the Science Behind Exercise and Weight Loss

    102 shares
    Share 41 Tweet 26
  • New Study Indicates Children’s Risk of Long COVID Could Double Following a Second Infection – The Lancet Infectious Diseases

    97 shares
    Share 39 Tweet 24
  • Revolutionizing Optimization: Deep Learning for Complex Systems

    84 shares
    Share 34 Tweet 21

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

Rethinking the Necessity of Prescribing Cascades

Snacking Habits Linked to Sleep Issues in Children

KLF5 Boosts Lung Cancer Spread via RHPN2 Pathway

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 63 other subscribers
  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.