Taming Oncogenic Signaling at Protein Interfaces: Challenges and Opportunities.

Many key cellular events determining the thin line between healthy and oncogenic behavior rely on the proper functioning of protein-protein interactions (PPIs). Alterations that affect the affinity of a protein-protein binding site may destabilize a desired healthy interaction, or stabilize an oncogenic interaction. The understanding that there are a few key hot-spot residues that are mainly responsible for the binding energy of an interaction greatly widened the prospects of targeting oncogenic protein-protein interfaces enabling the use of small ligands in addition to biological molecules such as peptides and antibodies.

Lipase release through semi-interpenetrating polymer network hydrogels based on chitosan, acrylamide, and citraconic acid.

In this study, a series of semi-interpenetrating polymer network (IPN) hydrogels were prepared as a support material for lipase immobilization. Hydrogels were synthesized via free radical polymerization in different compositions of chitosan (Cs), acrylamide (AAm), and citraconic acid (CA). The swelling values of the hydrogels were found to be 240-400%.

Selective sweeps in growing microbial colonies.

Evolutionary experiments with microbes are a powerful tool to study mutations and natural selection. These experiments, however, are often limited to the well-mixed environments of a test tube or a chemostat. Since spatial organization can significantly affect evolutionary dynamics, the need is growing for evolutionary experiments in spatially structured environments.

Genetic reporter system for positioning of proteins at the bacterial pole.

Unlabelled: Spatial organization within bacteria is fundamental to many cellular processes, although the basic mechanisms underlying localization of proteins to specific sites within bacteria are poorly understood. The study of protein positioning has been limited by a paucity of methods that allow rapid large-scale screening for mutants in which protein positioning is altered. We developed a genetic reporter system for protein localization to the pole within the bacterial cytoplasm that allows saturation screening for mutants in Escherichia coli in which protein localization is altered.

Schizosaccharomyces pombe Swi1, Swi3, and Hsk1 are components of a novel S-phase response pathway to alkylation damage.

The Swi1 and Swi3 proteins are required for mat1 imprinting and mating-type switching in Schizosaccharomyces pombe, where they mediate a pause of leading-strand replication in response to a lagging-strand signal. In addition, Swi1 has been demonstrated to be involved in the checkpoint response to stalled replication forks, as was described for the Saccharomyces cerevisiae homologue Tof1. This study addresses the roles of Swi1 and Swi3 during a replication process perturbed by the presence of template bases alkylated by methyl methanesulfonate (MMS).