A new way to capture proteins in motion

Every breath, heartbeat and thought in our body depends on proteins. They produce building blocks and signaling molecules while regulating genes and copying DNA when cells divide. Proteins are the workhorses of the body.

Every human cell expresses thousands of different proteins. The function of each one is governed by its three-dimensional shape. But that shape is not constant; it is continually influenced by a wide range of factors: from amino acids and vitamins to hormones within the cell.

Ilaria Piazza, researcher at Stockholm University and Wallenberg Academy Fellow, is investigating how the shapes of proteins are affected by small molecules.

“We want to create a catalogue of protein shapes, showing what influences them, and how they change in different environments. A protein can adapt its shape almost instantaneously to a change in its surroundings. Yet we still know surprisingly little about how they are regulated,” she says.

Full article on the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation website