2023

Nucleotide excision repair (NER) is a conserved and versatile DNA repair pathway found in all domains of life that is responsible for eliminating a wide diversity of DNA lesions from the genome. These include UV-induced pyrimidine dimers, but also bulky adducts caused by smoking or chemotherapeutic agents. In bacteria, NER is initiated by the UvrA and UvrB proteins that together locate the lesion before recruiting a third factor, the dual endonuclease, UvrC, that cleaves the DNA on either (...)

What mechanisms are behind the appearance of flowers? To answer this question, a 25-year-old enigma has just been solved: The role of the UFO protein in this formation process. While its nature suggested that it destroys its partners, this protein is in fact an aid to the birth of a flower when it is coupled to the LEAFY protein. This was revealed by researchers from several Grenoble institutes* in a new study published in Nature Plants. Scientists already knew that LEAFY, by binding to (...)

Elke de Zitter (IBS/Dynamics and kinetics of molecular processes Group) has been awarded the European XFEL Young Scientist Award 2023, which aims at recognizing outstanding contributions to research at European XFEL by young researchers in the early stages of their career. This prize rewards De Zitter’s research on processing serial-crystallography data taken by the SPB/SFX instrument at European XFEL. To know (...)

The endosomal sorting complex required for transport (ESCRT) machinery catalyzes many divergent membrane-remodeling processes such as membrane repair, enveloped virus budding and cytokinesis, amongst others. Dysfunction of the ESCRT machinery is associated with a diverse set of pathologies such as cancer or neuronal deficiencies. Notably members of the ESCRT-III protein family are conserved in all kingdoms of life and have been proposed to polymerize on membranes and remodel them to the (...)

Prodrugs have little or no pharmacological activity and require modifications to become active. Most prodrugs contain a chemical group that is removed or modified by the body’s enzymes to lead to the active drug, although a few can be intentionally activated by radiation, electrical stimuli or ultrasounds. However, to date, prodrugs capable of self-activation without enzymes or human intervention remain unknown. Researchers from the IBS (Protein Dynamics and Flexibility Group) in (...)