Archaea, initially known as archaebacteria, mostly are extremophiles: they thrive environments of high temperature, pressure, salinity and acidity. Probably, “special path” of archaea was predestined by unique properties of their membranes, which significantly differ from bacterial and eukaryotic ones. In Laboratory of biomolecular modeling at IBCh, Russian Academy of Sciences, a computational study was conducted to discover relationship between chemical structure of archaeal lipids and physical properties of the membranes. The work was published in Scientific Reports.

Besides proteins, glycosphingolipids and in particularly ganglioside GD2 can be treated as targets for anti-cancer therapy. It has been discovered that classic immune antitumor mechanisms are not exclusive (and probably are not the main) reasons of therapeutic activity of GD2-specific antibodies. In the study, carried out in the Group of molecular modulators of immunity in IBCh RAS, at the first time was proved unique property of ganglioside GD2 to activate “suicide” of tumor cells after it binding with GD2-specific antibodies. The project aimed to develop new anticancer drugs based on this study recently has received approval by the Skolkovo Foundation.

Our congratulations to Nadya and her coworkers on this remarkable achievement! The award aims to improve the position of women in science by recognizing outstanding women researchers.