Publications related to The dark sides of capillary morphogenesis gene 2

S-acylation and lipid exchange at the ER-Golgi membrane contact sites regulate pathogen entry in human cells

Cells have evolved endocytic pathways to internalize different molecules, to regulate intra-cellular communication and their interaction with external environment. Pathogens have co-evolved with cells to exploit these processes for infections. In particula ...

EPFL2024

Advancements in Nanomechanical Characterization and Biomolecular Imaging with Atomic force Microscopy

Veronika Cencen

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is a widely used imaging tool for obtaining a variety of information for a range of samples. Although it was initially intended to serve as a method of observing very flat solid surfaces, its use expanded into several other fi ...

EPFL2024

Computational drug development for membrane protein targets

Henning Paul-Julius Stahlberg, Pierre Vogel, Shuguang Yuan, Dongchun Ni, Babatunde Edukpe Ekundayo

The application of computational biology in drug development for membrane protein targets has experienced a boost from recent developments in deep learning-driven structure prediction, increased speed and resolution of structure elucidation, machine learni ...

2024

Structure of a membrane-bound menaquinol:organohalide oxidoreductase

Henning Paul-Julius Stahlberg, Christof Holliger, Julien Maillard, Lorenzo Cimmino, Dongchun Ni, Babatunde Edukpe Ekundayo

Organohalide-respiring bacteria are key organisms for the bioremediation of soils and aquifers contaminated with halogenated organic compounds. The major players in this process are respiratory reductive dehalogenases, corrinoid enzymes that use organohali ...

Nature Research2023

Multivalent Virucidal Antivirals: Synthesis, Mechanisms of Action, and Immune-stimulating Effects

Yong Zhu

Viruses initiate invasion by binding to cell surface glycoproteins. Materials mimicking the carbohydrate motifs of these glycoproteins, such as heparan sulfate (HS) and sialic acid (SA) can block viral attachment and inhibit the infection. Multivalent disp ...

EPFL2023

Effects of thermal, mechanical, and electrostatic perturbations on lipid membrane hydration investigated by second harmonic imaging

Seonwoo Lee

Hydrated lipid bilayer membranes are crucial components of cells and organelles, serving as the outer boundary that separates the cellular components from the extracellular environment. Lipid membranes regulate their structures and functions by dynamically ...

EPFL2023

Antiviral Mechanism of Virucidal Sialic Acid Modified Cyclodextrin

Francesco Stellacci, Paulo Henrique Jacob Silva, Marine Batista, Yong Zhu, Andrey Sysoev

We have reported that CD-6'SLN [6-sialyllactosamine (6'SLN)-modified beta-cyclodextrin (CD)] can be a potential anti-influenza drug because it irreversibly deactivates virions. Indeed, in vivo, CD-6'SLN improved mice survival in an H1N1 infection model eve ...

MDPI2023

Simultaneous membrane and RNA binding by Tick-Borne Encephalitis Virus capsid protein

Sarah Victoria Barrass

Tick-borne encephalitis virus is an enveloped, pathogenic, RNA virus in the family Flaviviridae, genus Flavivirus. Viral particles are formed when the nucleocapsid, consisting of an RNA genome and multiple copies of the capsid protein, buds through the end ...

PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE2023

Computational Studies of the Proton-Coupled Metal Ion Transport in the SLC11/NRAMP Family of Transporters

Maria Letizia Merlini

In the last years, it has been demonstrated a link between the overload of metal ions inside nervous system cells and the onset of severe neurodegenerative diseases. This prompted the investigation of the structural and functional properties of transporter ...

EPFL2022

The matricellular protein Drosophila Cellular Communication Network Factor is required for synaptic transmission and female fertility

Evelyne Ruchti, Brian Donal McCabe

Within the extracellular matrix, matricellular proteins are dynamically expressed nonstructural proteins that interact with cell surface receptors, growth factors, and proteases, as well as with structural matrix proteins. The cellular communication networ ...

Genetics Society America2022

Water as a contrast agent for imaging interfacial structure and ion transport in giant vesicles

David Roesel

Hydrated lipid bilayer membranes and their asymmetry play a fundamental role in living cells by maintaining and regulating concentration gradients between cells, their environment, and their compartments. They achieve this not only through various channels ...

EPFL2022

Significance of Receptor Mobility in Multivalent Binding on Lipid Membranes

Maartje Martina Cornelia Bastings, Diana Kornelia Morzy

Numerous key biological processes rely on the concept of multivalency, where ligands achieve stable binding only upon engaging multiple receptors. These processes, like viral entry or immune synapse formation, occur on the diffusive cellular membrane. One ...

Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH2022

2D MoS2 Nanopores: Wafer-scale Fabrication and Monolayer Stability for Long-term Single-Molecule Sensing

Mukeshchand Thakur

Biologically inspired solid-state nanopores are artificial openings or apertures in thin membranes similar to natural protein ion channels in a lipid bilayer of cell membranes. In solid-state nanopores, a thin insulating membrane with single or multiple po ...

EPFL2022

Mechanical Properties of Soft Biological Membranes for Organ-on-a-Chip Assessed by Bulge Test and AFM

Johann Michler, Georg Fantner, Veronika Cencen

Advanced in vitro models called “organ-on-a-chip” can mimic the specific cellular environment found in various tissues. Many of these models include a thin, sometimes flexible, membrane aimed at mimicking the extracellular matrix (ECM) scaffold of in vivo ...

2021

Functional and structural characterization of Serratia marcescens ExbB: determinants of the interaction with HasB/TonB

Henning Paul-Julius Stahlberg

ExbBD is part of a cytoplasmic membrane molecular motor driven by the proton-motive force. It belongs to the larger family of motors involved in nutriment import across the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria (ExbBD), flagellar rotation (MotAB) or lat ...

2021

Similarities and Differences among Protein Dynamics Studied by Variable Temperature Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Relaxation

François Freymond, David Lyndon Emsley, Jayasubba Reddy Yarava, Baptiste Busi, Andrea Bertarello

Understanding and describing the dynamics of proteins is one of the major challenges in biology. Here, we use multifield variable-temperature NMR longitudinal relaxation (R-1) measurements to determine the hierarchical activation energies of motions of fou ...

AMER CHEMICAL SOC2021

Membrane Activity of a DNA-Based Ion Channel Depends on the Stability of Its Double-Stranded Structure

Himanshu Joshi, Diana Kornelia Morzy

DNA nanotechnology has emerged as a promising method for designing spontaneously inserting and fully controllable synthetic ion channels. However, both insertion efficiency and stability of existing DNA-based membrane channels leave much room for improveme ...

AMER CHEMICAL SOC2021

Asymmetric opening of the homopentameric 5-HT3A serotonin receptor in lipid bilayers

Horst Vogel, Shuguang Yuan

Pentameric ligand-gated ion channels (pLGICs) of the Cys-loop receptor family are key players in fast signal transduction throughout the nervous system. They have been shown to be modulated by the lipid environment, however the underlying mechanism is not ...

Nature Research2021

Harnessing the Membrane Translocation Properties of AB Toxins for Therapeutic Applications

Françoise Gisou van der Goot Grunberg, Oksana Andrei Sergeeva

Over the last few decades, proteins and peptides have become increasingly more common as FDA-approved drugs, despite their inefficient delivery due to their inability to cross the plasma membrane. In this context, bacterial two-component systems, termed AB ...

2021

The Mammalian Membrane Microenvironment Regulates the Sequential Attachment of Bacteria to Host Cells

Alexandre Louis André Persat, Xavier Jean-Yves Pierrat, Jeremy Pak Hei Wong

Pathogen attachment to host tissue is critical in the progress of many infections. Bacteria use adhesion in vivo to stabilize colonization and subsequently regulate the deployment of contact-dependent virulence traits. To specifically target host cells, th ...

2021