New Article in Cell Reports: Control of bacterial virulence through the peptide signature of the habitat

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Krypotou, E., Scortti, M., Grundström, C., Oelker, M., Luisi, B.F., Sauer-Eriksson, A.E. & Vázquez-Boland, J. Control of bacterial virulence through the peptide signature of the habitat. (2019) Cell Reports, 26, 1815-1827.

We identify a major control mechanism of Listeria virulence based on antagonistic regulation by environmental peptides.Activity levels of the virulence regulator PrfA depend on the net balance between the rates of synthesis of the PrfA-activating cofactor GSH from exogenous peptide-derived cysteine and of direct, promiscuous PrfA inhibition by non-cysteine-containing peptides

New ISB Article by Erik Johansson et al in Nature Communications

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Professor Erik Johansson has published an article in Nature Communications named “Structural consequence of the most frequently recurring cancer-associated substitution in DNA polymerase epsilon“. The study was a collaboration with Uppsala University and University of Nebraska Medical Center. The article can be found at: “www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-08114-9”

Magnus Wolf-Watz named professor

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Magnus Wolf-Watz was named professor in biophysical chemistry on May 1:st 2018.

Ronnie Berntsson awarded the Swedish Foundation Starting Grant

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Ronnie Berntsson has be awarded the Swedish Foundation Starting grant for research on Type 4 Secretion Systems.

For more info see:

http://startinggrant.se/fellows/

http://ragnarsoderbergsstiftelse.se/artikel/swedish-foundations-starting-grant-fem-av-sveriges-framsta-forskare-beviljade

 

Collaborative grant for flavivirus research

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The Swedish Research Council has decided to award a 25.2 MSEK grant to a coalition of research groups at Umeå University and the University of Helsinki within the call “Research environment grant within infection and antibiotics”.

The project “Multimodal imaging and proteomics to study flavivirus replication and molecular disease mechanisms” is headed by flavivirologist Anna Överby Wernstedt at Umeå University and includes the biostruct-affiliated group of Lars-Anders Carlson. The other two teams involved in the collaboration are the Umeå-based group of Richard Lundmark and the Helsinki-based group of Sarah Butcher.

Ronnie Berntsson is as of now a Wallenberg Molecular Medicine Fellow

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As of 1st of December Ronnie Berntsson has started as a Wallenberg Molecular Medicine Fellow at Umeå University.

New Integrated Structural Biology article: “Formation of a translocation competent protein complex by a dynamic wrap-around binding mechanism.”

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This paper from the Wolf-Watz lab describes the discovery of a fundamentally new mechanism underlying protein-protein interactions. The chaperone-binding domain of the Yersinia effector protein YopH was found to lose its globular structure upon formation of a wrap-around architecture with its chaperone SycH. The mechanism is best described as a coupled binding and disordering event. The finding was enabled by an integrated structural biology approach by a five-lab effort and centered on NMR, SAXS and computational chemistry.

The article is published in Journal of Molecular Biology (2018), 430, 3157.

PhD defence Artur Dingeldein

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On June 1st Artur Dingeldein successfully defended his PhD thesis.

Congratulations Artur!

New article out: Interspecies Variation between Fish and Human Transthyretins in Their Binding of Thyroid-Disrupting Chemicals

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Zhang J, Grundström C, Brännström K, Iakovleva I, Lindberg M, Olofsson A, Andersson PL, Sauer-Eriksson AE.

Environ Sci Technol. 2018, 52, 11865-11874.

New article out: Structure-Based Design of Inhibitors Targeting PrfA, the Master Virulence Regulator of Listeria monocytogenes.

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Kulén M, Lindgren M, Hansen S, Cairns AG, Grundström C, Begum A, van der Lingen I, Brännström K, Hall M, Sauer UH, Johansson J, Sauer-Eriksson AE, Almqvist F. J Med Chem. 2018 May 10;61(9):4165-4175.