The ubiquitin system is a complex system in all eukaryotic organisms involved in the regulation of most cellular processes. A huge variety of signals are assembled with ubiquitin molecules onto cellular proteins to mark them for a specific task. Important regulators of the ubiquitin system are deubiquitinating enzymes (DUBs), which remove, or cleave, ubiquitin chains in order to reverse these modifications.
New insights into the mechanism of ubiquitin chain cleavage
Molecular mechanism triggering assembly of the Wnt signalosome uncovered
The Wnt signaling pathway is an ancient cell communication pathway that has important roles in development and cancer. For the first time, work by Mariann Bienz’s group in the LMB’s PNAC Division has uncovered the molecular mechanism triggering the assembly of the Wnt signalosome, a key component of the Wnt signal transduction pathway that controls normal development and tissue homeostasis in all animals.
Augmenting CRISPR genome editing applications
The ability of scientists to create changes in gene sequences has improved dramatically in recent years with the emergence of a new method, dubbed ‘CRISPR’. This ‘genome editing’ technology is of great interest due to the wide range of possible applications. CRISPR is already commonly used in fundamental research to study the function of specific genes in either cultured cells or whole animal models of human biology.
Molecular principles of gene fusion mediated protein interaction networks in cancer
Gene fusions, which occur when two previously separate genes become aberrantly fused together, are common cancer-causing mutations. What remain unknown are the molecular functions of most gene fusions, and the proteins that gene fusions can encode (fusion proteins). This lack of functional understanding is a growing problem, since the number of detected gene fusions in cancer continues to rise with advances in modern sequencing technologies.
Major breakthrough identifies cause and treatment of fatal autoimmune disease
The cause of a potentially fatal inherited autoimmune disease has been identified for the first time. The disease, now named OTULIN-related autoinflammatory syndrome (ORAS), was discovered by doctors treating patients who developed symptoms such as rashes, fever, and diarrhoea shortly after birth. The immune system of these patients spontaneously activates and starts to attack the patient’s own body leading to the described symptoms and eventually to the child’s death.
Molecular basis of APC/C regulation by the spindle assembly checkpoint
During eukaryotic cell division (mitosis) the cell’s chromosomes are duplicated and then equally separated into two new daughter cells. To prevent errors in mitosis cells employ checkpoints that monitor and coordinate the correct order of events. Checkpoints either delay cell division, or if unrecoverable, cause cell death.