The Cross-Border Biotech Blog

Intrinsically disordered proteins, i.e. proteins or regions of proteins that do not adopt defined structural folds, but rather exist as a dynamic ensemble of structures, are a fascinating and important area of biology. Members of this class of proteins are enriched in cell signaling, transcription and translation, where their lack of fixed structure must be [...]

Mutations in the CFTR gene, which encodes a chloride channel expressed on the apical membranes of surface epithelial cells, can lead to dysregulation of ion conduction and solute trafficking in these cells. This dysregulation manifests as the accumulation of thicker than normal mucus in the lungs, digestive tract and other areas and it is the [...]

When the human genome was sequenced there was surprise that only 23 thousand protein-encoding genes were found. However, it was followed by an added emphasis on the other mechanisms used by eukaryotic organisms to generate proteome diversity and especially the creation of different protein isoforms through alternative splicing of exons in precursor mRNA transcripts. Indeed, [...]

I have spent much of this week looking into cancer metabolism, where the recent partnership successes of Forma and fund raising by Agios have shown how hot this area has become. Many cancer cells it turns out switch their metabolism to aerobic glycolysis, a phenomenon known as the Warburg effect. An important regulator of the [...]