Protein arginine methyltransferase 5 (PRMT5) belongs to the class II arginine methyltransferases and catalyzes monomethylation and symmetrical dimethylation of arginines on proteins. It has recently emerged as a promising cancer drug target, and two PRMT5 inhibitors are currently in clinical trials for a range malignancies. Despite the recognized therapeutic potential, it is unclear which PRMT5 functions underlie its oncogenic activity.

A group of scientists from the Laboratory of Molecular Bases of Embryogenesis, IBCh RAS, together with colleagues from the Laboratory of Mathematical Methods and Models in Bioinformatics, IPPI RAS developed a bioinformatics method that allows one to reveal genes that appear or disappear at a certain stage of evolution. Using this method, a number of genes were found that disappeared in warm-blooded animals, including humans.

All genomes contain millions of short open reading frames (<100 codons) that are discarded during genome annotation. Recently, it has been shown that peptides encoded by short open reading frames can perform many important functions in animal cells.

Researchers discovered the biomolecular mechanism of fireworm glow.

Prof. Ilya Vinnikov from the Shanghai Jiao Tong University will deliver a lecture entitled «The top-down strategy in deciphering the roles of microRNAs in the metabolic and neurodegenerative models». Date and time: Tue 20 August 2019 14:00. Location: Conference hall at 5th floor BON IBCh.

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.

Professor Kurt Wüthrich, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, 2002, visited Shemyakin–Ovchinnikov Institute of bioorganic chemistry RAS and took part in the workshop of the Structural biology department of the Institute (headed by Prof. Alexander Arseniev).

The researchers from Laboratory of molecular bases of embryogenesis recently hypothesised that the decrease of limb regeneration capacity in amniotes (reptiles, birds and mammals) could be caused by elimination in evolution of genes, encoding for important regulators of specific wound epithelium and blastema organization, which are used by excellent regenerating anamniotes (fish and amphibia). Using two anamniotic model organisms Danio rerio adult fishes and Xenopus laevis tadpoles the authors have shown the essential role of Ras-dva small GTPases in regulation of these processes, meanwhile their genes are eliminated in a stepwise manner during evolution till total absence in placental mammals. The obtained results support the hypothesis. The investigation is published in Scientific reports.