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Bacterial Type 4 Secretion System – Gabriel Waksman (2018)

November 18, 2024 at 9:01 am / Featured, Molecular Nature, Video

Gram negative bacteria Type 4 Secretion System (T4SS) by Dr. Gabriel Waksman of the Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology, University College London and Birkbeck. Animations by Cellscape. This playlist consists of three videos illustrating the type 4 secretion system (T4SS) assembly, pilus biosynthesis and transfer of DNA segment into a recipient cell. T4SS are bacterial macromolecule secreting structures. These macromolecules include proteins and DNA. Bacterial cell-to-cell exchange of genetic materials such as plasmids or mobile genetic elements is called […]

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Antifreeze Proteins in Virtual Reality – Nanome (2022)

May 9, 2024 at 2:04 pm / Evolution, Molecular Nature, Video

Dr. Mike Kuiper, a biomodeler at CSIRO’s Data61 explains how antifreeze proteins work in a metaverse compatible virtual reality environment enabled by Nanome. These ice structuring proteins, is a basis of survival for organisms evolved to live in very cold environments with temperatures below the freezing point of water. Essentially, these proteins can bind to the surface of ice crystals and create a surface effect leading to freezing-point depression. Bacteria, insects, fishes and many more organisms from different evolutionary backgrounds […]

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Eyed Click Bug (Alaus oculatus) Ovipositing

January 20, 2024 at 10:01 am / Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, Molecular Nature, Natural history, NatureDocumentaries.org, Short Observations, Video

On May 26th 2012, this click beetle began laying her eggs on a log along the Orange trail of the State Botanical Garden of Georgia in Athens, GA. These beetles are quite noticeable due to their large size and distinctive eye patterns on their pronotum. At the beginning of the video (while she is stationary), you can see some very tiny red mites walking across her body. She wondered around on a downed tree and assessed possible egg laying sites. […]

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MAP Kinase Signaling – Ribosome Studio (2020)

February 15, 2023 at 1:14 am / Molecular Nature, Video

In order to learn a subject matter that has detailed sequential stages, it is best to consult multiple resources that tell the same story with their own twists. Mitogen Activated Protein Knase (MAPK) signaling pathway is one of these important subjects. Here as part of the molecular nature series you can find three such narratives focusing on MAPK signaling. The first and the main video was produced by the Ribosome Studio commissioned by of the Applied Sciences/ZHAW Life Sciences Pharmaceutical […]

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Cancer Immunotherapy – Nature Reviews Genetics

May 7, 2022 at 3:50 pm / Human Nature, Molecular Nature, Video

Cancer touches almost everybody’s life. Here in this playlist you can watch a comprehensive summary about molecular and cellular mechanisms involved in cancer biology. Based on this knowledge, various new approaches for treatment is now on the agenda. Some have already showed considerable success. Advances in cancer therapy comes from a number of cutting edge studies and projects including genomics, antibody research and metabolic understanding of cancer cells. The Cancer Genome Atlas project has been revolutionary in understanding the genomic […]

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Popped Secret: The Mysterious Origin of Corn – Nathan Dappen & Neil Losin – HHMI (2015)

May 1, 2022 at 10:02 am / Evolution, Human Nature, Molecular Nature, Video

Domestication of plants and animals is a key transformation in recent Human evolutionary history leading to sedentary farming societies. Domestication of Maize particularly followed a different trajectory from the agricultural crops of the old world. This HHMI documentary tells how the ancestral wild grass called Teosinte was domesticated to evolve into Maize. In the old world, most domesticated grasses had a surprisingly similar “first step” that paved the way towards agriculture. In old world grasses including rice, wheat, barley and […]

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Synthetic Cells: Building Life to Understand It – Katarzyna Adamala | iBiology (2021)

July 9, 2021 at 10:31 pm / Evolution, Molecular Nature, Video

Dr. Katarzyna Adamala of the University of Minnesota describes what synthetic cells are and how they can teach us the fundamental principles of life. By looking at the fundamental molecules of (RNA, DNA and Proteins) biologists are certain that life on Earth evolved only once. All biological systems (including viruses that are technically non-living) on our planet are rooted in the same fundamental framework. This framework appears extremely complex and we have yet to fully understand the processes inside living […]

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How The Coronavirus Attacks Your Lungs | KQED / Deep Look (2020)

May 7, 2020 at 8:58 am / Human Nature, Molecular Nature, PBS Nature

DEEP LOOK is a ultra-HD (4K) short video series created by KQED San Francisco and presented by PBS Digital Studios. In this special episode they are doing a vital job by disseminating reliable information on SARS-CoV-2 virus which leads to COVID-19 respiratory disease. The BBC Documentary The Hidden Life of the Cell has done a wonderful job of providing a visual story telling by animating series of events leading to an Adenovirus infection. You can also see how different coronaviruses […]

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Structure of a Spliceosome: Molecular Framework for Understanding Pre-mRNA Splicing – Beauty of Science

May 2, 2020 at 8:48 am / Molecular Nature

One Gene-One Peptide Hypothesis was a bold statement proposed by Edward Tatum and George Beadle in 1941 heralding the nascent field of molecular genetics. The proposal was long before we knew anything about the nature and structure of the DNA. It was rather vague how a gene encoded a protein. The Central Dogma of biology was coined by Francis Crick in late 1950s but the intermediate molecule known as the messenger RNA was identified (?) in 1960 by Arthur Pardee, […]

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ATP Synthase in Action – HarvardX / BioVisions

April 27, 2020 at 3:09 pm / Molecular Nature, Video

ATP is a universal energy storing molecule in biological systems. How does life generate ATP from ADP? Similarly, how does life consume it on an industrial scale in membrane bound systems such as mitochondria and chloroplasts? ATP synthase (or ATPase depending on which catalytic direction you look at it) enzyme is a hugely interesting molecular structure. Yes it most certainly is a bi-directional turbine. It is one of the few rotatory molecular structures life has evolved such as the flagella […]

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Electron Transport Chain – HarvardX / BioVisions (2013)

April 27, 2020 at 9:14 am / Evolution, Molecular Nature

Understanding molecular nature of life is not easy without informative scientific visualizations. Distillation of this rich body of information generated over decades or even century long research into a visual medium can be key to grasp complexities of subcellular structures. Take the Central Dogma of biology for instance. The Central Dogma animation distills more than half a century of intense laboratory research that started with Rosalind Franklin and Raymond Gosling’s extraordinarily historic X-ray diffraction photograph in 1952. Photo 51 was […]

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How Coronaviruses Get into Cells – Tom Goddard (2020) / ChimeraX

February 20, 2020 at 11:45 am / Molecular Nature, Video

Tom Goddard is the developer of a fantastically successful free molecular visualization program ChimeraX in the University of California at San Francisco with support from the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. Here in this augmented reality projection, he explains how coronaviruses manage to enter cells of the host and take over the machinery which spark a viral infection. He takes a peek at the HIV packing structure and delves into […]

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Mitochondria: The Cell’s Powerhouse – HarvardX / BioVisions (2010)

February 19, 2020 at 8:48 pm / Molecular Nature

Mitochondria is one of the defining features of eukaryotic cells. It is a key innovation in life’s evolution. Here in this video by BioVisions, HarvardX outlines this organelle’s fascinating biology with informative visualizations that help grasp its molecular nature. However, before you continue, you might be interested in a visualization by XVIVO as a great primer to this video for cytological reasons. XVIVO has teamed up with Google to create a stunning 3-D immersive visualization of subcellular compartments inside a […]

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Protein Degradation through Ubiquitination – Oxford University Press (2014)

September 26, 2019 at 2:08 pm / Molecular Nature, Video

What happens when a protein is “done” and must be taken care of? The companion animation to the Oxford University Press text book Molecular Biology- Principles of Genome Function, encapsulates the basics of ubiquitination through E1>E2>E3 cascade and the molecular components involved. Ubiquitin is a small protein that can be covalently linked to lysine residues of proteins targeted for degradation by proteosomes inside the cell. E1 activating enzyme E2 conjugating enzyme E3 ligase complex The combinatorial diversity of E3 complexes […]

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How Enzymes Work? – PDB/RCSB

April 20, 2019 at 3:55 pm / Molecular Nature, Video

Enzymes are a catalytic subgroup of proteins formed as end products of the Central Dogma of biology. They are essential for cellular functioning. Here in this Protein Data Bank (PDB) video the enzymes constituting the hugely important metabolic pathway –the citric acid cycle– that connects carbohydrate, fat and protein metabolism are briefly visualized. Subsequently, the enzyme aconitase (aconitate hydratase; EC 4.2.1.3) in this hugely important metabolic pathway is highlighted as an example. The steps taking place in the active site […]

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