Mitochondrien

In an initial application of the powerful MINFLUX nanoscopy technique to cell biology, researchers led by Stefan Hell and Stefan Jakobs have now optically dissected the distribution of individual proteins in a ~ 20-nanometer-sized protein cluster within a cellular organelle in 3D using multiple colors. MINFLUX nanoscopy thus proves to be an extremely powerful tool to find out if and how proteins group inside the cell, at the length scale of the proteins themselves.  more

The power plants of our cell – the mitochondria – consist of a smooth outer membrane and a highly folded inner membrane. However, what shapes the inner membrane remains a mystery. A team of scientists from Göttingen has now used state-of-the-art microscopy methods to gain new insights into how the inner membrane is folded. This could help to better understand some diseases of the nervous system and the muscular apparatus. more

Every day, billions of cells in our body kill themselves. This is vital to us. Responsible for this self-induced cell death are the power houses of living cells, the mitochondria. When their surfaces become permeable the cell dies. Göttingen scientists have shown for the first time that the so-called Bax proteins form annular structures on the mitochondria. These rings could act as pores and so make the mitochondrial surface permeable. more

For the first time, scientists in Göttingen have solved the high-resolution structure of the molecular transporter TSPO, which introduces cholesterol into mitochondria. This protein also serves as a docking site for diagnostic markers and different drugs, such as Valium. more