Electrical disorder acts like a traffic light for a biological gate

Nature’s way of allowing proteins across its gates, through porous biological membranes, depends, among others, on their electrical charge. For a protein to cross this type of membrane, it needs to be stimulated by an electrical field. A new study focuses on a particular kind of proteins that have multiple functions—dubbed Intrinsically Disordered Proteins—because the electric charge disorder on their surface makes it possible for them to take multiple shapes.