Using electron microscopy, scientists have managed to produce a 3D model of a part of the human cell, the ribosome, which is no more than 30 nanometres in diameter. Credit: Eva Kummer
So says Associate Professor Eva Kummer from the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research, who is responsible for the new study published inThe Ribosome Using electron microscopy, Eva Kummer and her colleagues Giang Nguyen and Christina Ritter have managed to produce a 3D model of a part of the human cell, the ribosome, which is no more than 30 nanometers in diameter.“It is important to understand how the ribosome is built and how it works, because it is the only cell particle that produces proteins in humans and all other living organisms. And without proteins, life would cease to exist,” says Eva Kummer.
Before ribosomes can start to produce proteins, they first need to be assembled from over 80 different components. Out of the three stages, the 3D model describing the earliest time point in the assembly is the most interesting, according to Eva Kummer, as no one has been able to describe it before.