Crystal Gazing

Superantigens: Gazing into the crystal ball

The recently determined crystal structures of complexes between bacterial toxin 'superantigens' and MHC class II molecules shed light on the nature of the interactions between these two molecules.

Gazing at the crystal rods of malaria.

Hemozoin, the black– brown crystalline byproduct from a parasite’s digestion of hemoglobin, aided the detection of malaria over a century ago when Ronald Ross won a Nobel Prize for his discovery of the transmission of malaria. Hemozoin was useful back then because little was understood of the parasite and hemozoin could be seen without a stain. For years the gold standard for diagnosing malaria...

Crystal ball gazing and the effects of fate.

Gazing into a crystal ball to predict kidney transplant outcome.

Kidney transplantation is the optimal therapy for end-stage kidney disease but requires lifelong immunosuppression. Despite improvements in immunosuppression regimens that have reduced rates of acute transplant rejection, long-term allograft survival remains suboptimal. More than 50% of transplanted kidneys from deceased donors fail within 10 years. In order to improve long-term outcomes, physi...

Net sequence gazing

Last month, The spider's web looked at the range of biological resources available on the net. This month there are more specific tips on how to get the most out of these tools, for the least effort, with an emphasis on tools for sequence analysis. As is true of almost any use of computers, getting something done on the net requires a lot of non-intuitive knowledge, and net knowledge becomes re...