The Scientific Data journal published the paper “Transcriptomics of Venom Glands and Proteomics of Venom of the Spider Tibellus Oblongus,” which describes a comprehensive study of the venom of the Central Asian spider. As a result of the analysis of the transcriptome of the venom glands and the venom proteome, more than 200 new peptide molecules were discovered, including both toxins with a classical organization and with unique structural motifs.

Adhesion of leukocytes is a key stage in their trafficking into sites of inflammation. This process is mediated through the interaction of integrins, selectins or CD44, while the role of galectins is not completely clear. It is known that galectins are capable of interacting with oligolactosamines of endothelial cells, and also that in vitro tandem-type galectins (Gal-4, -8 and -9) bind with high affinity to glycans of the ABH blood group system. This work shows that in a cell lines system gal-9 mediates lymphocyte adhesion to endothelial cells through binding to their H-glycan, suggesting that lymphocyte adhesion to endothelium in the circulation occurs similarly and is regulated by the level of galectin-9 expression.

Biological polymers (proteins, nucleic acids and their mixtures) are able to form macromolecular complexes in solution, which at a certain saturating concertation of a polymer grow in size and when crossing the diffraction limit (0.25 µm) become visible under the microscope. Such microscopically observed spherical liquid-like formations have various naming depending on a context such as: «coacervate droplets», biomolecular condensates, etc. Although these polymer droplets (especially proteinaceous) gained numerous attentions of scientist during the last century, e. g. as potential «protocells» in «the primordial soup» according to the life-origin hypothesis by Alexander Oparin, active studies of their functional roles in the living cells flourished in the recent decades.

Scientists from the Laboratory of Molecular Bases of Embryogenesis at the Shemyakin-Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with researchers from the Kharkevich Institute for Problems of Information Transmission, Russian Academy of Sciences, have pioneered a method for wide-scale identification of genes whose loss or emergence during evolution correlates with the disappearance or emergence of distinct phenotypic or physiological traits.

Diabetes is one of the significant risk factors for ischemic stroke. Hyperglycemia exacerbates the pathogenesis of stroke, leading to more extensive cerebral damage. It is logical to assume that more extensive tissue damage during ischemia should somehow correlate with the severity of oxidative stress.

Researchers from the Laboratory of neuroreceptors and neuroregulators of IBCh RAS have improved the method of genomic DNA preparation from fungi for PCR diagnostics.

The researchers from the Laboratory of Polymers for Biology, Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry RAS, together with colleagues from the Federal Scientific Research Center «Crystallography and Photonics» RAS and other institutes, have demonstrated an effective strategy for the polymerization of photocurable compositions (PCC) using a nanoinitiator based on upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs), activated by near infrared (NIR) light.

Scientists from the Department of Molecular Neuroimmune Signaling of the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry RAS, together with colleagues from the Prokhorov General Physics Institute RAS conducted a study of various snake venoms using Raman spectroscopy and demonstrated the applicability of this method to the analysis of such complex biomolecular mixtures as venoms.

The researchers from the Laboratory of Chemistry of Metabolic Pathways in collaboration with colleagues from other department of IBCh RAS conducted the total synthesis of luciferin from marine polychaete Odontosyllis undecimdonta, a heterocyclic compound with a previously unknown skeleton. The research was published in Organic Letters.

Scientists from the Department of Molecular Neuroimmune Signaling of the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, together with colleagues from the Institute of Cell Biophysics and the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Biophysics, studied the effect of cobra venom cardiotoxins on the intracellular concentration of calcium ions and the shape of rat cardiomyocytes.