Researchers of the Laboratory of Receptor Cell Biology IBCh RAS together with colleagues from the IPCE RAS and IC RAS carried out a study of the IRR structure by atomic force microscopy and small-angle X-ray scattering. The conformations of the receptor in the active and inactive states have been determined; on the basis of the obtained data, an activation mechanism has been proposed.

Mal de Meleda (MDM) is recessively inherited palmoplantar keratoderma associated with mutations in a gene encoding SLURP-1 protein. SLURP-1 is a paracrine regulator of keratinocyte homeostasis interacting with the α7 type nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (α7-nAChR). This receptor participates in control of growth, terminal differentiation, apoptosis and cornification of keratinocytes. Dysregulation of the α7-nAChR function due to SLURP-1 deficiency or point mutations of this protein may underlie MDM pathogenesis.

Researchers from Federal Research and Clinical Center of Physical-Chemical medicine and Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry RAS, in collaboration with Skolkovo University of Science and Technology and D.Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia developed simple and robust sensors for detecting microchanges in intracellular pH.

Researchers from the Laboratory of Molecular Bases of Embryogenesis (Shemyakin-Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry RAS), in technical cooperation with colleagues from the Department of Metabolism and Redox Biology (Shemyakin-Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry RAS), the Laboratory of Genomics and Epigenomics of Vertebrates in the Federal Center "Fundamentals of Biotechnology" RAS, as well as with colleagues from the Cell Motility Group of the Institute of Protein Research RAS, discovered a previously unknown mechanism of the regulation of the activity of genes that determine the pluripotent status of the embryonic stem cells.

Researchers of the Laboratory of Molecular Immunology, IBCh RAS, in collaboration with Russian colleagues have shown that the strategy of targeting of anticancer toxins to two different surface antigens on the surface of a cancer cell is effective in the treatment of not only primary solid tumors, but also distant metastases.

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.

Researchers from the Laboratory of Molecular Bases of Embryogenesis, together with a colleague from the Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, described for the first time four genes of the Noggin family in the oldest representatives of vertebrates - lampreys, and compared their structure, expression and some functional features with those of the known genes of this family in other vertebrates.

Scientists from the IBCh RAS, Federal Scientific Research Centre “Crystallography and Photonics”, FSBSI “N.N. Blokhin Russian Cancer Research Center”, Lomonosov Moscow State University of Fine Chemical Technologies and Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University developed a method for the UCNP surface functionalization with endogenous colominic acid conferring “stealth” properties, which led to effective accumulation in the area of inflammation, as well as micro- and macro-blood vessels visualization.