A possible way to new antibiotics

Two research teams from the University of Bern and the ETH Zurich have developed a new method to shed light onto a mostly unknown process of bacterial protein production. Their results could be used for the design of new antibiotics. Ribosomes are the factories of the cell and, as such, are responsible for the fabrication of proteins. They resemble a complex and highly dynamic machinery made of ribosomal RNA molecules and a variety of ribosomal proteins. As long as theses factories run smoothly, amino acids are put together incessantly deep in the center of the complex to form new proteins that are then released through a special narrow ribosomal exit tunnel. But sometimes things get stuck in the fabrication line. Proteins are hindered to leave the exit tunnel and the whole machinery is stalled.