Piece by piece
Thomas SchwartzPhoto: Allegra Boverman One of the most important structures in a cell is the nuclear pore complex — a tiny yet complicated channel through which information flows in and out of the cell’s nucleus, directing all other cell activity.Little is known about this vital cell structure, but MIT biologist Thomas Schwartz is trying to change that. Using X-ray crystallography, he is steadily assembling a thorough portrait of the 500 proteins that make up nuclear pores, and how they come together to perform their crucial role.“Nuclear transport is fundamental to life,” Schwartz says. “If you want to understand how a cell works, you need to understand how transport works.”A cell’s nucleus is where all of its genetic material is stored in the form of DNA. Those genetic instructions are copied into messenger RNA, strands of which have to exit the nucleus so they can direct the cell’s protein synthesis. Proteins...