Erice, here I come! Very much looking forward to the EMBO workshop on channels AND transporters (does it get any better than that?!?!) ๐ organized by Anna Moroni, Stephan Pless @plesslab.bsky.social & Alessio Accardi!
And maybe it's just a very strange coincidence, but I was assigned seat 19F... ๐ฅฐ๐งฒ
Congratulations to @hellmichgroup.bsky.social! The Max Planck Society awarded her a Max Planck Fellowship. We are happy to have her as a Max Planck Fellow and look forward to intensifying our collaboration with her.
www.ice.mpg.de/556225/ute-h...
New preprint! ๐จ
Phage proteins don't act alone. Phages rely on homooligomerisation to assemble identical protein subunits into functional forms. But figuring out those exact configurations experimentally is tough. Learn about our approach in our new preprint! ๐ (1/n)
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Really nice profile of Guy @lloydjonesgroup.bsky.social in Nat Rev Chem to mark his 60th. rdcu.be/fjhFH
Looking forward to catching up with 30 years' worth of group members next month!
www.biorxiv.org
Nature Reviews Chemistry - Ahead of his 60th birthday, Guy Lloyd-Jones, Forbes Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh, spoke about his career in science.
New paper out with our friends the Nina Morgner Lab on how to quantify homodimer affinities by native MS ๐
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
Never thought it possible, but this concludes our JACS triple - 3 papers in 3 months ๐๐ฅณ๐งช
@crc1507.bsky.social @microverse.bsky.social
@lifeprofile.bsky.social
A big thank you to all the wonderful people @mpi-ce.bsky.social for hosting us these last 2 days and introducing all kinds of different co-workers, large and small ๐๐ชฐ๐ชฒ, stationary ๐ชด๐ฒ๐ข and very(!) mobile๐
Karin Groten, Claudia Voelckel and the entire Ulrich lab! ๐ฅฐ
@yukoulrich.bsky.social
pubs.acs.org
Biological processes rely on finely tuned homo- and heteromeric interactions between (biomacro)molecules. The strength of an interaction, typically given by the dissociation constant (KD), plays a crucial role in basic research and must be monitored throughout the development of drugs and agrochemicals. An ideal method for KD determination is applicable to various analytes with a large range of affinities, tolerates complex matrix compositions, does not require labeling, and simultaneously provides information on the structural integrity of the binding partners. Native mass spectrometry meets these criteria but typically struggles with homooligomeric complexes due to overlapping mass signals. To overcome this, we resolve monomer/dimer contributions to overlapping MS-peaks by separately analyzing the charge state distribution of each oligomeric species via sample dilution and covalent cross-linking. Following this approach, we show that quantitative laser-induced liquid bead ion desorption mass spectrometry (qLILBID-MS) accurately captures the affinities of Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) and chemically induced dimers of Tryparedoxin (Tpx), an oxidoreductase from human pathogenic Trypanosoma brucei parasites, with various molecular glues and homodimer affinities. Conveniently, qLILBID-MS requires a fraction of sample used by other methods such as isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) and yields previously inaccessible protein homodimer KDs in the high micromolar range, which allowed us to monitor the gradual decrease in homodimer affinity via mutation of crucial dimer interface contacts. Overall, qLILBID-MS is a sensitive, robust, fast, scalable, and cost-effective alternative to quantify protein/protein interactions, that can accelerate contemporary drug discovery workflows, e.g. the efficient screening for proximity inducing molecules like proteolysis targeting chimera (PROTACs) and molecular glues.
Red blood cells don't always make their own heme - under stress, they scavange it from neighbors. Our new paper in @ScienceMagazine reveals a cell-nonautonomous heme acquisition pathway essential for erythroid hemoglobinization. #heme #erythropoiesis #anemia
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Ute Hellmich
Heme, an iron-containing cofactor, is synthesized in mitochondria by an eight-enzyme pathway. Although cells were thought to manage heme autonomously, more than 1000 proteins contribute to its product...
www.science.org
Now it's official! Our DFG funded Collaborative Research Center on Membrane Complexes will be funded for another round! ๐ฅณ๐ฅณ๐ฅณ
For our lab that means more exciting work on TRP channels and their role as cellular signaling hubs ๐
@crc1507.bsky.social
www.dfg.de/de/aktuelles...
Congratulations to all awardees! ๐ฅณ
I was a postdoc with Rachelle just over 10 years ago, and her advice and guidance are still with me every day. She is an amazing mentor, scientist and a wonderful human being. It's no coincidence that the lab remains tight-knit across generations and continents ๐๐