Efficient and specific removal of malignant cells is the ultimate goal of cancer therapy. The current rapid development of chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR-T cell or CART) therapy potentially provides high efficiency and allows long-term surveillance, which have greatly extended the frontier of leukemia treatment.

April 3rd 2019, a regular meeting of the IBCh RAS Scientific Council took place, featuring the 2013 Chemistry Nobel Prize awardee, Arieh Warshel.  The scientist delivered a short talk, regarding the prospects of contemporary science and possibilities of using the quantum mechanics calculations to predict the behavior of complex systems, up to the organs and organisms.  Director of our Institute, Alexander Gabibov, announced that professor Warshel had joined the International Advisory Board of the Institute, along with several other distinguished scientists, and presented him a symbolical gift.

Scientists from Russia, UK, Spain, Brazil, Japan, and Austria discovered the essential set of enzymes that allows glowing fungi to emit light. The bioluminescent system includes a brand- new luciferase and three enzymes that enable biosynthesis of fungal luciferin from a widespread metabolite – caffeic acid – as well as its recycling. The genes encoding this “caffeic acid cycle” make up a unique molecular toolkit that allows to turn any higher organism into a glowing one. The work was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.