Proteins are the building blocks of life. These biomolecules comprise chains of amino acids that fold into precise shapes to ...

Biomolecules such as amino acids and sugars occur in two mirror-image forms -- in all living organisms, however, only one is ever found. Why this is the case is still unclear. Researchers have now ...

Cancer cells consume sugar at a higher rate than healthy cells, but they're also hungry for amino acids, the building blocks of proteins and other biomolecules. Researchers at Winship Cancer Institute ...

Amino acids are the building blocks of life and are encoded by DNA. Enzymes and structural proteins are made of amino acids, and are used as precursors for other important biomolecules in the body. In ...

Scientists have long wondered how the first complex biomolecules arose from the abiotic ooze. After all, life on Earth today requires enzymes to make basic biomolecules such as peptides—short chains ...

Analysis of samples returned from the carbonaceous asteroid Bennu suggests that amino acids could form in the cold fringes of ...

A team led by distinguished chemistry professor Graham Cooks published a paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that examined a mechanism for peptide-forming reactions that occur in ...

In recent years, scientists have found amino acids and proteins — the building blocks of life as we know it — on pristine space rocks, suggesting that the biomolecules can form in space. Now, new ...

The first amino acid, discovered in 1806, had a disarmingly ordinary source: asparagus juice. Hence the name asparagine. The next amino acids to be discovered had sources that were, if anything, even ...

Harvard University postdoctoral researcher Erkin Kuru’s journey in biological sciences started back in his undergraduate days in his home country of Turkey. Eventually, he decided to pursue a PhD in ...