Regenerated Bombyx mori silk fibroin (RSF) is a widely recognized protein for biomedical applications; however, its hierarchical gel structure is poorly understood. Here, the hierarchical structure of photocrosslinked RSF and RSF-based hybrid hydrogel systems: (i) RSF/Rec1-resilin and (ii) RSF/poly(N-vinylcaprolactam (PVCL) is reported for the first time using small-angle scattering (SAS)...
TIGIT, CD96 and DNAM-1 constitute a family of immune receptors that regulate the activity of Natural Killer (NK) cells towards transformed targets. The capacity of these nectin receptors to mediate target cell adhesion, immune synapse formation and regulate effector function is dependent on their recognition of nectin and nectin-like (necl) adhesion molecules, which are over-expressed in a...
Understanding the behavior of the protein within the nanostructured lipid mesophase is crucial for evolving biological and biomedical applications of hybrid protein-lipid materials. After more than two decades since the invention of the in meso crystallization method for membrane proteins, a protein-eye view of its mechanism is still lacking. Structural studies have suggested that integral...
Living matter is exposed many forms of radiation from both natural and artificial sources. Broadly speaking these can be classified as either non-Ionising or Ionising, depending on whether the radiation is sufficiently energetic to induce an ionisation event in an atom or molecule. It is recognised that the interaction of ionising radiation (IR) with biological matter can be beneficial, for...
SFPQ is an abundant nuclear protein implicated in many aspects of RNA biogenesis. Importantly, nuclear depletion and cytoplasmic accumulation of SFPQ has been linked to neuropathological conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Here we report the structural basis of cytoplasmic relocation of SFPQ induced by zinc. The crystal structure in complex with...
Central to both systems of innate and adaptive immunity is the mediation of T-cell recognition of antigen presenting molecules presenting antigens (Ag) by T-cell receptors (TCR). CD1 molecules are Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) class I like molecules involved in the presentation of foreign and self-lipid antigens. CD1b exhibits the largest hydrophobic antigen binding cleft, allowing it...
