In new research recently published in the journal Cell Reports, a team of scientists from the University of Massachusetts Amherst delved into the mysteries of how cells weather stress. Using bacterial cells, the researchers discovered that a damage-repairing enzyme, called ClpX, can not only mutate to fix multiple cellular issues but can respond to changing levels of cellular energy to help keep a cell healthy.
September 28, 2022
In new research recently published in the journal Cell Reports, a team of scientists from the University of Massachusetts Amherst delved into the mysteries of how cells weather stress. Using bacterial cells, the researchers discovered that a damage-repairing enzyme, called ClpX, can not only mutate to fix multiple cellular issues but can respond to changing levels of cellular energy to help keep a cell healthy.
« What we’re really interested in, » says Peter Chien, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at UMass Amherst and the paper’s senior author, « is how cells respond to stress. We study a class of enzymes, called proteases, which target and destroy harmful proteins within a cell. These proteases can selectively recognize specific, individual proteins singular proteins.
