Structural Biochemistry Laboratory - Soongsil University

03/02/2016

211 new structures at pdbe.org/latest today.
11 HIV-neutralising antibody structures locate the binding site for a lipid epitope.

03/02/2016

X-ray ‘Snapshots’ Reveal Details Of How Megaenzymes Synthesize Natural Products
http://cen.acs.org/articles/94/web/2016/01/X-ray-SnapshotsReveal-Details-Megaenzymes.html

02/02/2016

The cholesterol-lowering drug atorvastatin (Lipitor) is the world’s top-selling drug of all time. It acts by blocking the active site of HMGR1, an enzyme present in the liver that catalyzes the formation of cholesterol.

Download this image and more from our 2016 calendar: http://pdb101.rcsb.org/learn/resource/2016-a-year-in-protein-drug-complexes

17/01/2016

"Truly unique!" Two proteins from one gene bind together; new insights into fighting Clostridium infections in Journal of Biological Chemistry.
http://news.embl.de/science/1601-endolysin/
http://www.jbc.org/content/early/2015/12/18/jbc.M115.671172

Further insights into how viral enzymes degrade the cell walls of Clostridia bacteria.

17/01/2016

Here's a 3D printed verion of pdbe.org/1raw
pic.twitter.com/I0C3XrPDiS

31/12/2015

Cryo-EM is Nature Methods' "Method of the Year"
http://www.nature.com/nmeth/journal/v13/n1/full/nmeth.3730.html

15/12/2015

An interdisciplinary team of researchers on the Genome Campus and in the Cavendish Laboratory presents the Periodic Table of Protein Complexes!
Ahnert SE, Marsh JA, Hernández H, Robinson CV and Teichmann SA (2015). Principles of assembly reveal a periodic table of protein complexes. Science (in press); published online 11 December. DOI: 10.1126/science.aaa2245

An interactive version of this table with information on the structures represented by each topology can be found at http://www.periodicproteincomplexes.org/

08/12/2015

Today is the birthday of Thomas Cech, who won the 1989 Nobel Prize for discovering catalytic RNA, termed 'Ribozymes'
His structures in the PDB include several ribozymes: http://www.ebi.ac.uk/pdbe/entry/search/index?all_authors%3A%22Cech+TR%22&sort=release_date+asc

10/11/2015

Medical science is always looking for a magic bullet: an antibiotic that will kill a pathogen, but leave our own bodies untouched. The trick is to find targets that are unique to the pathogen, and then find a drug that attacks only them. This gets trickier, however, when we need to fight parasitic animals, since their molecules are quite similar to ours.

Many invertebrates, such as disease-causing parasitic worms, rely on glutamate-gated chloride channels, which are widely found in many types of nerves, including those controlling locomotion, feeding and sensing. The one shown here, from PDB entry 3rif, is an inhibitory channel from a roundworm. It is composed of five identical protein chains. The upper portion recognizes the neurotransmitter, glutamate, and opens up a channel that passes through the nerve membrane, allowing chloride ions to pass through. These channels are perfect targets for antibiotics, because our own cells don't use them.

The 2015 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine was awarded to two scientists who discovered drugs that block these channels. The drug ivermectin binds to the channel and locks it into an open state. As seen in the crystal structure, the drug binds between the protein subunits, within the membrane-spanning portion. Drugs like ivermectin have become the front line weapons for battling infections by parasitic worms, and are widely used to treat people and livestock.

More: http://www.rcsb.org/pdb/101/motm.do?momID=191

27/10/2015

Fall 2015 issue describes new website features for visualization and analysis, an important Hybrid/Integrative Methods publication, 2015 Poster Prize roundup, and more. Learn the “ABCs of Proteins” with Education Corner.
http://www.rcsb.org/pdb/general_information/news_publications/newsletters/2015q4/home.html

16/10/2015

If you have a nut allergy, this molecule could be responsible. http://www.ebi.ac.uk/pdbe/entry/pdb/4xuw
The first structure of a hazelnut allergen in the PDB was released this week.

01/05/2015

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v520/n7549/full/nature14427.html
Structure of human ribosome 80s was revealed by cryo-EM at 3A resolution.

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