Honoring the 200 anniversary of the Karolinska Institute, Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications (BBRC) has published a special issue with a series of mini-reviews from KI scientists illustrating recent developments within some areas of biomedical research at the molecular level that have been actively pursued at KI. Our contribution, entitled “Beyond the cell surface: New mechanisms of receptor function“, discusses novel aspects of receptor signaling based on some of our recent investigations of the GDNF/GFRa1 signaling system.
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PKC-mediated RhoGDI interaction with p75NTR JUX domain |
After quite some perseverance and few years of work, the 3D structure of the N-terminal portion of the extracellular domain (ECD) of the RET receptor has been determined by former postdoc fellow Svend Kjaer working at the lab of Nel McDonald in CRUK, London. The paper has appeared online in Nature Structure and Molecular Biology. During his tenure at our lab in 1998-2004, Svend studied RET intensively and published several papers on its biosynthesis, oligomerization and structure-function relationships. He spent several years producing fragments of the RET extracellular domain for structural characterization. Although sufficient for biochemical analyses, the yield was never enough for crystallization. The breakthrough at CRUK came after introduction of a few mutations, including two that knocked-off a couple of unpaired cysteines. The new structure gives tantalizing insights into how RET interacts with the GDNF ligand and co-receptor GFRa1 and how its mutation causes disease. The ENDOCYTE Research and Training network finishes off with a mini-conference in Porto Carras, Northern Greece, on August 22-25, organized by postdoc fellow Anastasia Simi. The preliminary program includes talks from Philippe Bastiaens, Isabel Guerrero, Ivan Dikic, Harald Stenmark, Anastasia Simi, Ioannis Charalampopoulos, Casper Hoogenraad, Marta Miaczynska, Blagoy Blagoev, Leif Dehmelt, Eleanor Coffey, Carsten Schultz and fellows from the ENDOCYTE network. More to come! Annalisa Vicario is to join our group on May 2010. Annalisa defended her thesis in the group of Enrico Tongiorgi at University of Trieste, Italy. Her thesis work was on mechanisms controlling BDNF mRNA localization and regulation of protein expression. She will join our p75ntr team as a postdoc fellow. We look forward to have her in our group. At the end of this month, the first deadline for postdoc position in several projects at our lab is closing. Visit the Open Positions page for more details. A few of us are heading this weekend to the Amalfi coast for the second meeting of the Molpark network. If the Molpark kick-off meeting of last year in Izmir, Turkey may serve as an indication, this promises to be a memorable event. We are crossing our fingers hoping that the volcano in Island will not ruin our plans. Watch this space! |
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