Unlike the tightly controlled replication of DNA in living cells, PCR amplification, a “workhorse” of molecular biology, balances between simplicity and accuracy. Conventional “bulk” PCR often yields inefficient and nonuniform amplification of complex templates in DNA libraries, introducing unwanted biases.

Researchers from Laboratory of bioinformatics approaches in combinatorial chemistry and biology and Laboratory of high-performance screening of biological objects together with colleagues from Moscow State University and University College Cork (Ireland) discovered novel protein POLGARF, which is encoded in alternative reading frame of mitochondrial DNA polymerase POLG mRNA. The results of this study are published in PNAS.

The scientists from the Laboratory of biocatalysis, the Laboratory of proteolytic enzyme chemistry, the Laboratory of bioinformatics approaches in combinatorial chemistry and biology and the Laboratory of hormonal regulation proteins, together with colleagues from EMBL-Hamburg, Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov, the Sheffield Institute and the Scripps Research Institute have developed a universal algorithm that makes it possible to create biological antidotes based on biocatalysts, directionally increasing their reactivity, and to predict stereoselectivity.

Lipids 2021 Conference, October 19-21, 2021, IBCH RAS, Moscow