Microtubules are elongated protein structures found in cells. Polymers of tubulin, microtubules are hollow cylinder-like structures, consisting of 13 long strands of the tubulin polymer along the axis. They are part of the exoskeleton of our cells, and also provide the support-structure for nerve cells, and perform essential functions during cell division.
For the first time, scientists have unraveled the processes that take place when tubulin polymers combine to form a microtubule. Eva Nogales and Hong-Wei Wang of the Life Sciences Division of the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory report their findings in the 16 June 2005, issue of the journal Nature.

Microtubule (Courtesy: Wikipedia)As the microtubules play a critical role during cell division, understanding the way it is created can pave the way to new anti-cancer drugs (Cancer is essentially cells multiplying without control, and thus an ability to control the microtubule growth can lead to a way to stop that). The research identifies the technique in which a GTP (Guanosine Triphosphate, a chemical composed of the nucleotide Guanine and a inorganic radical named triphosphate) combines with a single tubulin, which further enables other tubulins to latch onto it, and thus build the cylinder:):).
The new high-resolution models of tubulin transitional states will be used to understand how microtubules explore their cellular environment to find their goals — a process crucial to the accurate deployment of spindles during cell division, for example — and how drugs can be designed and targeted to put a monkey wrench into the growth of cancer cells:):).