Basic research into the mechanisms of cell division, using eggs and embryos from frogs and starfish, has led researchers to an unexpected discovery about how animal cells control the forces that shape themselves.

The predicted profile for the conformational dynamics of the tyrosine kinase family is shown. Regions highlighted in red correspond to important structural elements involved in protein activation. Researchers from the Structural Biology Computational Group of the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), led by Alfonso Valencia, in collaboration with a group headed by Francesco Gervasio at the University College London (UK), have developed the first computational method based on evolutionary principles to predict protein dynamics, which explains the changes in the shape or dimensional structure that they experience in order to interact with other compounds or speed up chemical reactions. The study constitutes a major step forward in the computational study of protein dynamics (i.e. their movement), which is crucial for the design of drugs and for the research on genetic diseases, such as cancer, resulting in higher levels of complexity than allowed by current methods. The results have been published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Food waste is today's hot topic. In fact, according to scientific surveys in Switzerland, 300 kg of perfectly good food ends up in the bin per person each year. However, this number encompasses the entire shopping basket, from yoghurt to drinkable leftover wine and two-day-old bread.

New research has shed light on the molecular changes that occur in our bodies as we age.