Press releases - News from the MPI of Biochemistry Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry http://www.biochem.mpg.de/en/news/pressroom/index.html http://www.biochem.mpg.de/ 11.10.2010 13:35 konschak@biochem.mpg.de (Anja Konschak) http://www.biochem.mpg.de/images/webLogoStandard_k.gif http://www.biochem.mpg.de/news/pressroom/index.html de mokrause@biochem.mpg.de (Monika Krause) Press releases Research Science Science communication When pathogens such as bacteria or viruses invade the human body, different immune cells must work together and coordinate their defense strategies with each other. Using newly developed proteomics technologies, scientists of the Max Planck Institute (MPI) of Biochemistry in Martinsried near Munich, Germany, have now comprehensively detected the messenger proteins secreted by immune cells during such an immune response. “Our method enables an analysis of the information exchange between cells and provides a powerful tool to understand the language of our immune system in the context of disease,” said Felix Meissner, scientist at the MPI of Biochemistry. The results of the study, which was carried out in collaboration with colleagues from the MPI for Infection Biology in Berlin, have now been published in Science. http://www.biochem.mpg.de/en/news/pressroom/078_mann_immun.html konschak@biochem.mpg.de http://www.biochem.mpg.de/en/news/pressroom/078_mann_immun.html 25.04.2013 13:08 Proteins are the molecular building blocks and machinery of cells and are involved in practically all biological processes. Together with his US-colleague Arthur L. Horwich of Yale School of Medicine, F.-Ulrich Hartl, director at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried near Munich, receives this year´s Herbert Tabor Research Award of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) for his research in protein folding. The award coming with a 30,000 US-Dollar (around 23,200 Euros) honorarium is given in acknowledgement of excellent scientific achievements in the fields of biological chemistry and molecular biology and honors outstanding members of the ASBMB. http://www.biochem.mpg.de/en/news/pressroom/079_Hartl_TaborPreis.html konschak@biochem.mpg.de http://www.biochem.mpg.de/en/news/pressroom/079_Hartl_TaborPreis.html 09.04.2013 10:43 Most cancer patients die of the disease because tumor cells spread to other sites in the body and form new tumors, so-called metastases. Scientists of the Max Planck Institute (MPI) of Biochemistry in Martinsried and their cooperation partners of the Lead Discovery Center GmbH (LDC) have now signed a licensing agreement with the Korean company Qurient for a group of active substances that have been a focus of their research for a long time. These substances shall target metastasizing and drug-resistant tumors more specifically and selectively. Qurient will successively enter the tested substances into preclinical and clinical trials in order to use them in the future for drugs in patients. The Max Planck researchers hope that if the experiments and clinical trials are successful, a drug based on the new active substances could be on the market by the end of the decade. http://www.biochem.mpg.de/en/news/pressroom/080_Ullrich_AxlInhibitor.html konschak@biochem.mpg.de http://www.biochem.mpg.de/en/news/pressroom/080_Ullrich_AxlInhibitor.html 08.03.2013 15:26 Every gene in the nucleus of an animal or plant cell is packaged into a beads-on-a-string like structure called nucleosomes: the DNA of the gene forms the string and a complex of proteins called histones forms the beads around which the DNA is wrapped. Scientists of the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried near Munich, Germany, have now established that adding chemical tags on histones is critical for regulating gene activity during animal development. Studies over the past two decades revealed that many proteins that control the activity of genes are enzymes that add small chemical tags on histone proteins but also on a variety of other proteins. With their studies the researchers have now shown that it is the tags on the histones that control if genes are active or inactive. Their results were published in the journal Science. http://www.biochem.mpg.de/en/news/pressroom/081_Mueller_Histon.html konschak@biochem.mpg.de http://www.biochem.mpg.de/en/news/pressroom/081_Mueller_Histon.html 04.02.2013 14:25 Much in the same way as we use shredders to destroy documents that are no longer useful or that contain potentially damaging information, cells use molecular machines to degrade unwanted or defective macromolecules. Scientists of the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried near Munich, Germany, have now decoded the structure and the operating mechanism of the Exosome, a macromolecular machine responsible for degradation of ribonucleic acids (RNAs) in eukaryotes. RNAs are ubiquitous and abundant molecules with multiple functions in the cell. One of their functions is, for example, to permit translation of the genomic information into proteins. The results of the studies now published in the journal Nature show that the structural architecture and the main operation mode of the Exosome are conserved in all domains of life. http://www.biochem.mpg.de/en/news/pressroom/082_Conti_Exosom.html konschak@biochem.mpg.de http://www.biochem.mpg.de/en/news/pressroom/082_Conti_Exosom.html 03.02.2013 22:00 To ensure that the genetic material is equally and accurately distributed to the two daughter cells during cell division, the DNA fibers must have an ordered structure and be closely packed. At the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried near Munich scientists have now elucidated the structure of a ring-shaped protein complex (SMC-kleisin), which ensures order in this packaging process. Together with their cooperation partners at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, they studied these proteins in bacteria and found structural analogies to the human complex. The findings have now been published in the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology. http://www.biochem.mpg.de/en/news/pressroom/083_Gruber_Kleisin.html konschak@biochem.mpg.de http://www.biochem.mpg.de/en/news/pressroom/083_Gruber_Kleisin.html 28.01.2013 01:00 All living organisms consist of cells that have arisen from other living cells by the process of cell division. However, it is not yet fully understood just how this important process takes place. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute (MPI) of Biochemistry in Martinsried near Munich have now developed a minimal biological system, which brings together key components of the cell division apparatus. With the aid of this minimal model, the researchers were able to take a closer look at the biophysical mechanisms involved. “Our model may help to develop and test new treatments for diseases caused by errors in cell division,” said Sven Vogel, scientist at the MPI of Biochemistry. The results of the study have now been published in the new journal eLife. http://www.biochem.mpg.de/en/news/pressroom/084_Schwille_Zellteilung.html konschak@biochem.mpg.de http://www.biochem.mpg.de/en/news/pressroom/084_Schwille_Zellteilung.html 08.01.2013 13:11