Scientists had attempted to model a 3D structure of a protein associated with the HIV virus for 15 years and failed.
Trifluoroethanol is known to open up the pretzel-shaped structure of a protein.
Dr Ewan said other researchers were working to modify the structure of the protein in peanuts thought to trigger most cases of allergic reaction.
But studying the structure of the antibody and the protein on the flu virus that it targets could make it that much more likely for a universal vaccine to be developed.
Merck has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in using yeast for protein production, but Merck's yeast technology does not allow it to control the type of sugar structure on the protein.
Since knowing the structure of one member of a protein family lets researchers guess what others will look like, the most efficient strategy for choosing protein targets should cover as wide a diversity as possible.
Instead, differences in composition between warm-water and cold-water ion channels were the result of a phenomenon called RNA editing, in which special enzymes alter the structure of the RNA messenger, and thus of the final protein.
They made fibers from bits of protein and then assembled them into a lattice-like structure.
This finding is in line with modern thinking that a lot of evolutionary change is connected with regulatory elements rather than actual protein structure.
Working with the geneticists' favourite animal, the fruit fly Drosophila, Dr Gibson has pinpointed a series of so-called cryptic variations that have no effect on a protein's structure, but can nevertheless, if the circumstances are right, have a significant effect on the individual they belong to.
His Nobel Prize winning work on protein structure is more relevant now than ever as we turn attention to the smallest building blocks of life to make sense of the human genome and mechanisms of disease.
They exposed gliadin to digestive enzymes in test tubes and were able to identify a protein fragment made up of 33 amino acids that was resistant to further digestion and whose structure was known to be toxic.
Players are presented with a protein and given the task of finding its most energy-efficient shape by fiddling with its structure.
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