X-rays Help Researchers Piece Together Treasured Cellular Gateway
Published:13 Jul.2022 Source:DOE/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Your body is made of close to 100 trillion cells that keep you healthy and alive. Each cell has billions of parts of its own, all of them working in tandem to keep life's processes moving.
One vital component of a cell is called a nuclear pore, which acts like the doors and windows in a house -- they allow important things, like RNA and proteins, to enter and exit a cell's nucleus. Without nuclear pores, your cells, and everything else in your body, would shut down. Until now, scientists have not seen exactly how nuclear pores are built and how their many parts function.