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News from the MPI of Molecular Physiology 🧬 Mechanistic Cell Biology 🧫 Systemic Cell Biology 🔬 Structural Biochemistry 🧪 Chemical Biology www.mpi-dortmund.mpg.de

Our paper is now out in Nature: “Ancient co-option of LTR retrotransposons as yeast centromeres” www.nature.com/articles/s41... A short thread on how retrotransposons helped give rise to yeast point centromeres. 1/14

Evolutionarily related ‘proto-point’ centromeres providing resolution to the evolutionary origins of point centromeres are identified in yeast, and comparison shows they evolved in an ancestor with re...

The Gersch Group developed a well characterized matched chemical pair of inhibitor and degrader for the investigation of the DUB USP7 in #solidcancers together with the Cancer Center at the University Hospital Essen. Congrats to @nikolasklink.bsky.social et al. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

NRAS mRNA-Degrading Bifunctional Small Molecules Induce Diverse Cellular Morphological Changes in #CancerCells Published by the Peng Wu Group in @jacs.acspublications.org Au pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Ihr blieb der Ruhm versagt, den sie verdient gehabt hätte. Ein Hörspiel über die Wissenschaftlerin und starke Persönlichkeit #LiseMeitner 🎧 www.ardaudiothek.de/episode/urn:... #MaxPlanckHistory #Wissenschaftsgeschichte

Two new papers from the lab published in The EMBO Journal! link.springer.com/article/10.1... By Kai Walstein, @louisa-hill.bsky.social and others – On role of M18BP1 in CENP-A loading link.springer.com/article/10.1... By Arianna Esposito Verza and others – On mechanism of activation of PLK1

It’s out! 🥳 Excited to share our new paper (with Kai Walstein, @andrea-musacchio.bsky.social and all others) on the role of M18BP1 in CENP-A loading! “M18BP1 valency and a distributed interaction footprint determine epigenetic centromere specification in humans” link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

Millions in funding @wellcometrust.bsky.social for a new study by the groups of @adesaurin.bsky.social & Tony Ly from @dundee.ac.uk and @andrea-musacchio.bsky.social @maxplanck.de on phosphorylation-dephosphorylation dynamics during #celldivision www.mpi-dortmund.mpg.de/news/million...

We warmly welcome our new independent @maxplanck.de Group Leader Andrija Sente. His group will investigate the molecular mechanisms of neuronal communication. Learn more about Andrija and his work and click on the link🔗 www.mpi-dortmund.mpg.de/news/new-max...

We are proud of Arianna Esposito Verza who successfully completed her #doctoralthesis in @andrea-musacchio.bsky.social lab! Her research into the regulation of cell division was recently published in @embojournal.org ➡️ link.springer.com/article/10.1... We wish you all the best for your future!

The histone H3 variant CENP-A is considered an epigenetic landmark of centromeres. Its deposition reflects cell-cycle-regulated assembly of M18BP1, HJURP, and PLK1 on a divalent MIS18α/β scaffold. The...

We warmly welcome our new #LiseMeitner Group Leader Katerina Naydenova. Her group will investigate cellular defence mechanisms and develop novel methods in the field of cryogenic electron microscopy. Learn more about Katerina and click on the link 🔗 www.mpi-dortmund.mpg.de/news/katerin...

DUBs regulate key cellular processes, but selective tools are scarce. Here, the authors developed PROTACs for the DUB USP7, comparing degraders with inhibitors. The study provides a valuable toolbox f...

Als Wissenschaftlerin steht Lise Meitner auf einer Stufe mit Einstein, Heisenberg und Otto Hahn. Sie war 48-mal für den Nobelpreis nominiert. Ihre Geschichte erzählt vom Kampf gegen Diskriminierung, d...

Therapeutic targeting of the oncogenic NRAS protein, which is constitutively activated in human cancers, with small molecules is a promising yet challenging anticancer strategy. Therefore, targeting the NRAS mRNA poses a feasible alternative that will likely yield new biological consequences due to the new mechanism of regulation at the post-transcriptional level. We report herein the first examples of a reversely regulating NRAS mRNA-degrading ribonuclease targeting chimeric small molecules (NRAS-RIBOTAC), which were assembled by conjugating a reported 4-aminoquinazoline G4-NRAS binder with a biphenyl RNase L binder. Among the obtained NRAS-RIBOTACs, 5 impacted G4-containing NRAS mRNA expression while it did not significantly impact the expression of NRAS protein in MD-MB-231 cells, which could be explained by the fact that the G4-containing NRAS transcript only accounts for a trace amount in comparison with the dominant G4-lacking NRAS mRNA. Furthermore, we report here for the first time the phenotypic evaluation of RIBOTACs in the unbiased phenotypic profiling method, cell painting assay. In comparison with the monovalent ribonuclease recruiter and G4-NRAS mRNA binder, selected RIBOTACs showed significant activities in inducing cellular morphological changes and demonstrated a new biological performance that is reflected by the diverse cellular morphological changes in cancer cells.