Single-molecule measurements provide detailed mechanistic insights into molecular processes, for example in genome regulation where DNA access is controlled by nucleosomes and the chromatin machinery. However, real-time single-molecule observations of nucl ...
The essential human enzyme lysine specific demethylase 1 (LSD1) silences genes by demethylating mono- and dimethylated lysine 4 in histone H3 (H3K4me1/2). Studies of the minimal requirements for LSD1 activity are complicated by the heterogeneity of histone ...
Effector proteins are recruited to chromatin via transient interactions between their reader domains and histone post-translational modification (PTM) patterns. These interactions form signaling pathways that control gene expression or repression and which ...
The rising resistance and the severe side effects associated with classical anticancer drugs such as cisplatin or mercaptopurines has triggered the development of novel antitumourous agents based on transition metal (e.g. ruthenium, osmium, and gold) organ ...
G protein-coupled receptors play essential roles in cellular processes such as neuronal signaling, vision, olfaction, tasting, and metabolism. As GPCRs are the most important drug targets, understanding their interactions with ligands is of utmost importan ...
Any living organism contains a whole set of instructions encoded as genes on the DNA. This set of instructions contains all the necessary information that the organism will ever need, from its development to a mature individual to environment specific resp ...
The regulation of several processes inside and outside the cell depends on the action of a particular class of enzymes, called allosteric. In allosteric macromolecules, binding a ligand at one site affects the binding activity at a distal functional site, ...
Nearly all the cells of an organism share the same DNA sequence or genome, and yet they show different phenotypes and carry out different functions. This diversity is made possible by a verity of molecular modifications acting on the DNA sequence that coll ...
In eukaryotic cells, the genome is packaged into chromatin and exists in different states, ranging from open euchromatic regions to highly condensed heterochromatic regions. Chromatin states are highly dynamic and are organized by an interplay of histone p ...
Designing compounds that bind to the acidic patch of the nucleosome core particle (NCP) is an emerging therapeutic approach that can inhibit the binding of key chromatin factors. Pretreatment of human ovarian carcinoma, A2780, cells with RAPTA-T, an antime ...
Epigenetics plays an important role in cancer development and progression. Cancer cells hijack the epigenome by modifying the histone protein units responsible for packaging DNA, or by modifying the DNA itself, resulting in changes to chromatin topology an ...