Small molecule inhibition of RNA binding proteins in haematologic cancer.

In recent years, advances in biomedicine have revealed an important role for post-transcriptional mechanisms of gene expression regulation in pathologic conditions. In cancer in general and leukaemia specifically, RNA binding proteins have emerged as important regulator of RNA homoeostasis that are often dysregulated in the disease state. Having established the importance of these pathogenetic mechanisms, there have been a number of efforts to target RNA binding proteins using oligonucleotide-based strategies, as well as with small organic molecules.

Catalyst-Controlled Annulations of Strained Cyclic Allenes with π-Allylpalladium Complexes.

Strained cyclic allenes are a class of in situ-generated fleeting intermediates that, despite being discovered more than 50 years ago, has received significantly less attention from the synthetic community compared to related strained intermediates. Examples of trapping strained cyclic allenes that involve transition metal catalysis are especially rare. We report the first annulations of highly reactive cyclic allenes with in situ-generated π-allylpalladium species.

from Desert Specialist Fungus-Growing Ants Suppresses Contaminant Fungi Using the Antibiotic ECO-0501.

Symbiotic help fungus-growing ants suppress fungal pathogens through the production of antifungal compounds. ants of the southwest desert of the United States inhabit a unique niche far from the tropical rainforests in which most fungus-growing ant species are found. These ants may not encounter the specialist fungal pathogen known to threaten colonies of other fungus-growing ants.

Thiopeptide Defense by an Ant's Bacterial Symbiont.

Fungus-growing ants and their microbial symbionts have emerged as a model system for understanding antibiotic deployment in an ecological context. Here we establish that bacterial symbionts of the ant antagonize their most likely competitors, other strains of ant-associated bacteria, using the thiopeptide antibiotic GE37468. Genomic analysis suggests that these symbionts acquired the GE37468 gene cluster from soil bacteria.