The BBSRC publishes ‘Our Impact’ case studies to highlight how the research it funds has an impact on science, the economy and social issues. Prof Andrew Martin’s abYsis software was chosen as a BBSRC Impact case for 11 September 2018.
October 2018
Congratulations to Dr Alan Lowe and Dr Konstantinos Thalassinos on being awarded a BBSRC grant for the project, Reverse engineering cell competition using automated microscopy and recurrent neural networks, a collaboration with Guillaume Charras from the London Centre for Nanotechnology.
October 2018
Prof Francesco Gervasio’s group has contributed to the discovery and clarification of an unexpected, yet fundamental, role of the enzyme glutamine synthetase.
Glutamine synthetase (GS) is an enzyme that converts glutamate and ammonia to glutamine. GS is expressed in endothelial cells, fundamentally regulating vascular development. However, a group of scientists led by Prof Peter Carmeliet at VIB in Belgium together with Prof Francesco L. Gervasio found that it surprisingly shows little glutamine synthetizing activity in these cells. Instead, GS localizes in membranes due to an expected (and so-far, unknown) auto-palmitoylation activity. This moonlighting activity turns out to be fundamental for vessel sprouting. However, it was unclear how it happens and which residues are involved. The state-of-the art models and simulations by Prof. Gervasio’s group were able to solve the mystery, showing how palmitoyl-COA binds to the active site (see figure, left) and reacts with cysteine 209 to form a covalent bond. Site-directed mutagenesis of Cys209 later confirmed the computational prediction and validated the proposed mode of action. This new finding, published by Nature at the beginning of September, has important implications for anti-cancer drug discovery, as it might lead to new drugs blocking the vascular development in solid cancers.
Role of glutamine synthetase in angiogenesis beyond glutamine synthesis
Eelen, G.,…, Gervasio, F.L.,…, Carmeliet, P.
Nature (2018) 561, 63-69
August 2018
The latest ISMB Newsletter for Summer 2018 can be downloaded at the following link:
Congratulations to Professor Andres Ramos on being awarded an MRC Programme grant for the project: ‘Molecular mechanisms regulating mRNA transport and local translation in neurons‘.
The research will investigate the crucial role played by RNA binding proteins in the regulation of the transport and translation of mRNAs in dendritic and axonal locations. The regulation of mRNA translation in space and time creates distinct local biochemical environments in the cell, which are essential in mediating inter-neuronal communication and establishing neuronal networks.
This MRC programme is a collaboration between groups at ISMB, the UCL Sainsbury Wellcome Centre, the Francis Crick Institute, the UCL Institute of Neurology and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. The grant will run from 2018 to 2023.