Capturing cell protein production in action could help fight
antibiotic resistance   The fight against antibiotic resistance
could be aided by new 3D images of the final steps involved in
manufacturing proteins in living cells, scientists reveal today
in a letter to Nature.  By refining a technique known as cryo-
electron microscopy, researchers from Imperial College London
and CNRS-Inserm-Strasbourg University have determined how the
enzyme RF3 helps prepare the protein-making factory for its next
task following disconnection of the newly formed protein strand.
The team's success in capturing the protein-making factory, or
ribosome, in action using cryo-electron microscopy will help
scientists to begin deciphering the molecular detail of how many
antibiotics interfere with the final steps of protein synthesis
- an area not currently targeted in antibiotics research.
Professor Marin van Heel of Imperial's Department of Biological
Sciences and senior author of the study says:  "Many antibiotics
kill bacteria