Researchers demonstrated how amino acids could spontaneously attach to RNA under early Earth-like conditions using thioesters, providing a long-sought clue to the origins of protein synthesis. This ...

The question of how life started on Earth is rife with speculation, some ending with a delivery truck from space. Panspermia ...

Amino acids have long been known to improve the stability and solubility of proteins. Amino acids might be added to insulin, for example, to maintain shelf-life and stop undesired chemical reactions ...

How life emerged on Earth is among the most significant mysteries in science. Though it remains an open question in biology, scientists have some pretty promising theories as to how a chemical soup ...

Pyrrolysine is an important component of methyltransferase enzymes, which the archaea use to metabolize methylamine in the environment. “The need for that metabolism and availability of the machinery ...

Exactly how life arose out of non-living matter is a major mystery, and a new study has found that natural selection may have played a role before life itself even existed on Earth. By recreating the ...

Using just 20 amino acid letters, ribosomes spell out all the proteins needed to keep cells ticking. But Jason Chin, head of Cambridge’s Centre for Chemical & Synthetic Biology, has long wondered ...

For decades, amino acids have been added to medical formulations like insulin as stabilizers: these small molecules keep proteins (i.e. larger particles) from interacting in undesirable ways. And for ...

Protein hydrolysates are produced by breaking down proteins into short protein fragments (peptides) and amino acids. They are ...

This research was supported by the University of Bristol Bob Savage Memorial Fund and the Leverhulme Trust (PLP-2012-116). As a scientist, lab work can sometimes get monotonous. But in 2017, while a ...

Consuming over 22% of dietary calories from protein can lead to increased activation of immune cells that play a role in atherosclerotic plaque formation and drive the disease risk, new study showed.