Publications associées à New Binding Sites, New Opportunities for GPCR Drug Discovery

From Sequence to Dynamics to Function: Computational Design of Allostery and Ligand Selectivity in G-Protein Coupled Receptors

The phenomenon of allostery, a general property in proteins that has been heralded as "the second secret of life" remains elusive to our understanding and even more challenging to incorporate into protein design. One example of allosteric proteins with gre ...

EPFL2024

Antibodies expand the scope of angiotensin receptor pharmacology

Patrick Daniel Barth, Shuhao Zhang

G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are key regulators of human physiology and are the targets of many small-molecule research compounds and therapeutic drugs. While most of these ligands bind to their target GPCR with high affinity, selectivity is often l ...

2024

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

Recording physiological history of cells with chemical labeling

Kai Johnsson, Julien Hiblot, Ling Hai

Recordings of the physiological history of cells provide insights into biological processes, yet obtaining such recordings is a challenge. To address this, we introduce a method to record transient cellular events for later analysis. We designed proteins t ...

American Association for the Advancement of Science2024

Structural heterogeneity of the ion and lipid channel TMEM16F

Horst Vogel

Transmembrane protein 16 F (TMEM16F) is a Ca2+-activated homodimer which functions as an ion channel and a phospholipid scramblase. Despite the availability of several TMEM16F cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) structures, the mechanism of activation ...

Nature Portfolio2024

Deconvolution of ex-vivo drug screening data and bulk tissue expression predicts the abundance and viability of cancer cell subpopulations

Alexandre Coudray

Ex-vivo drug sensitivity screening (DSS) allows the prediction of cancer treatment effectiveness in a personalized fashion. However, it only provides a readout on mixtures of cells, potentially occulting important information on clinically relevant cell su ...

EPFL2023

Proliferation-driven mechanical compression induces signalling centre formation during mammalian organ development

Pengfei Xu, Sangwoo Kim

Localized sources of morphogens, called signalling centres, play a fundamental role in coordinating tissue growth and cell fate specification during organogenesis. However, how these signalling centres are established in tissues during embryonic developmen ...

Nature Portfolio2024

A bistable inhibitory optoGPCR for multiplexed optogenetic control of neural circuits

Mauro Pulin

Information is transmitted between brain regions through the release of neurotransmitters from long-range projecting axons. Understanding how the activity of such long-range connections contributes to behavior requires efficient methods for reversibly mani ...

Nature Portfolio2024

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

Muhammad Umair Anwar

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

Investigating the intra-molecular and inter-molecular effects of post-translational modifications on intrinsically disordered protein regions and structured protein regions

Zhidian Zhang

Post-translational modifications (PTMs) play a pivotal role in regulating protein structure, interaction, and function. Aberrant PTM patterns are associated with diseases. Moreover, individual PTMs have a complex interaction with each other, known as PTM c ...

EPFL2024

Microfluidic device combining hydrodynamic and dielectrophoretic trapping for the controlled contact between single micro-sized objects and application to adhesion assays

Philippe Renaud, Arnaud Bertsch, Clémentine Sophie Sarah Lipp

The understanding of cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions via receptor and ligand binding relies on our ability to study the very first events of their contact. Of particular interest is the interaction between a T cell receptor and its cognate peptide-m ...

ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY2023

Rules and mechanisms governing G protein coupling selectivity of GPCRs

Bruno Emanuel Ferreira De Sousa Correia, Pablo Gainza Cirauqui

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) convert extracellular stimuli into intracellular signaling by coupling to heterotrimeric G proteins of four classes: Gi/o, Gq, Gs, and G12/13. However, our understanding of the G protein selectivity of GPCRs is incomplet ...

Cell Press2023

Unlocking Hidden Potential: Exploring the Complexities of Signaling in Immune Cell Activation to Optimize CAR Therapy

Mathieu Girardin

Chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) are synthetic, transmembrane proteins that trigger immune cell signaling following their engagement. They have been first utilized in T cells and later in natural killer (NK) cells to redirect their cytotoxicity toward a s ...

EPFL2023

Exploring the interplay of molecular pattern and valency for selective interactions at the bio-interface

Kaltrina Paloja

Cell-cell communication is fundamental for immune balance. Multivalent interactions of surface receptors at immune interfaces drive specific communication, with stimulatory and inhibitory signals guiding the immune outcome. Notably, the valency, affinity, ...

EPFL2023

Towards Uncovering the Mechanisms of Electrophile Sensing and Signaling

Chloé Rogg

Native reactive electrophile species (RES) such as 4-hydroxynonenal (HNE) act as cellular signals through covalent modification of kinetically-privileged electrophile sensor proteins. Research efforts in the field focus mainly on identifying these sensor p ...

EPFL2023

Variants of the gain domain of adhesion g protein-coupled receptors

Louis Georges Baptiste Dumas, Matthieu François Marfoglia, Patrick Daniel Barth

The present invention relates to variants of the GAIN domain (G-protein-coupled receptor autoproteolysis-inducing domain) of an adhesion G protein-coupled receptor (ADGRG), such as a GAIN domain variant comprising or consisting of the amino acid sequence o ...

2023

Quantifying single-cell diacylglycerol signaling kinetics after uncaging

Milena Maria Schuhmacher, Pavel Barahtjan

Studying the role of molecularly distinct lipid species in cell signaling remains challenging due to a scarcity of methods for performing quantitative lipid biochemistry in living cells. We have recently used lipid uncaging to quantify lipid -pro-tein affi ...

Cell Press2023

Artificial intelligence for natural product drug discovery

Philippe Schwaller, Albert Hofstetter, Michael Alexander Skinnider, Florian Huber

Developments in computational omics technologies have provided new means to access the hidden diversity of natural products, unearthing new potential for drug discovery. In parallel, artificial intelligence approaches such as machine learning have led to e ...

Nature Portfolio2023

Combination of dielectrophoretic and hydrodynamic traps for the controlled contact between cells or beads and application to adhesion assays

Clémentine Sophie Sarah Lipp

Multicellular organisms require very well organized and finely balanced cell-cell communication, adhesion and coordination to ensure the organisms homeostasis. These functions rely on specialized receptors placed at the cells membrane whose binding to thei ...

EPFL2023

De novo designed proteins: a study in engineering novel folds and functions

Alexandra Krina Van Hall-Beauvais

Proteins control nearly every facet of life on a molecular level. Proteins are formed from linear strings of amino acids, which fold into three-dimensional structures that can enact functions. Evolution has created highly efficient proteins in diverse fold ...

EPFL2023