An international team of scientists has for the first time crystallised a key enzyme of the pathogen for African sleeping sickness in a living cell and investigated it with the world’s strongest X-ray laser. This new method will open new ways to study the structure of biomolecules, the scientists write in the professional journal “Nature Methods”. In the case of African sleeping sickness that affects more than 60 million people mainly in Central Africa this method might lead to a new treatment approach against the parasite Trypanosoma brucei.

Scientists x-ray key enzyme for sleeping sickness