Individual mammalian cells contain billions of protein molecules, which must be synthesized, deployed, and removed with ...

One of the hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease is the clumping of proteins called Tau, which form tangled fibrils in the brain.

Scientists took a closer look at a prehistoric bone, and uncovered something completely unexpected.

MIT scientists have found that an amino acid called cysteine can help the gut heal itself. In mouse studies, a cysteine-rich diet activated immune cells that release a molecule speeding up tissue ...

One of the most elegant theories about the origins of life on our planet is that it was kick-started by a delivery from outer space. This idea suggests that prebiotic molecules—the building blocks of ...

Tryptophan, the essential amino acid behind the Thanksgiving myth that eating turkey can make you sleepy, has been found to exist on Bennu, a small asteroid that swings by our planet about every six ...

In a peer-reviewed analysis, scientists quantify amino acids before and after our “last universal common ancestor.” The last universal common ancestor (LUCA) is the single life form that branched into ...

Amino acids have long been known to improve the stability and solubility of proteins. Amino acids might be added to insulin, for example, to maintain shelf-life and stop undesired chemical reactions ...

Researchers demonstrated how amino acids could spontaneously attach to RNA under early Earth-like conditions using thioesters, providing a long-sought clue to the origins of protein synthesis. This ...

Amino acids are absolutely essential to our health—and for life itself. They are the so-called “building blocks” of proteins. They play a key role in the growth, repair, and maintenance of almost ...

Rolls of brightly colored plastic. After it is used and discarded, polylactic acid could be used as a feedstock for making the amino acid alanine. Credit: Shutterstock One of the simpler amino acids, ...