Lakemeyer and colleagues analyze the secretome of gut bacteria to identify factors that target host PAR2. They find that the Bacteroides fragilis protease Bfp1 cleaves and activates PAR2, disrupting i...

Job #AJO30338, WDR-00054776 Assistant Professor - Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Cornell University (Ithaca, NY), Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, US

Immune therapies targeting the PD1 axis have transformed outcomes in cancer treatment by enhancing T cell-mediated immune responses. However, many tumors evade immune clearance through orthogonal esca...

Nature Communications - Rickettsia species are bacterial pathogens that obligately reside in the host cell cytosol. Here, Sun et al. report that Rickettsia use host glutathione as a nutrient source...

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An approach that combines single-nucleus RNA sequencing and multiplexed perturbation identifies genes that enable the biosynthesis of direct precursors of the anti-cancer drug Taxol, whose curren...

Polymeric Borrelia burgdorferi peptidoglycan cell wall can persist in murine livers for weeks to months after direct injection or infection.

MIT chemists found a way to identify a complex sugar molecule in the cell walls of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the world’s deadliest pathogen. This labeling could lead to simpler, faster TB tests.

Uncontrolled activation of PKR by endogenous double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) is detrimental to cells, as it leads to global translational shutdown. Here, we show that PACT and ADAR1 establish a threshold ...

The cell surface proteome, or surfaceome, is the hub for cells to interact and communicate with the outside world. Many disease-associated changes are hard-wired within the surfaceome, yet approved drugs target less than 50 cell surface proteins. In the past decade, the proteomics community has made significant strides in developing new technologies tailored for studying the surfaceome in all its complexity. In this review, we first dive into the unique characteristics and functions of the surfaceome, emphasizing the necessity for specialized labeling, enrichment, and proteomic approaches. An overview of surfaceomics methods is provided, detailing techniques to measure changes in protein expression and how this leads to novel target discovery. Next, we highlight advances in proximity labeling proteomics (PLP), showcasing how various enzymatic and photoaffinity proximity labeling techniques can map protein–protein interactions and membrane protein complexes on the cell surface. We then review the role of extracellular post-translational modifications, focusing on cell surface glycosylation, proteolytic remodeling, and the secretome. Finally, we discuss methods for identifying tumor-specific peptide MHC complexes and how they have shaped therapeutic development. This emerging field of neo-protein epitopes is constantly evolving, where targets are identified at the proteome level and encompass defined disease-associated PTMs, complexes, and dysregulated cellular and tissue locations. Given the functional importance of the surfaceome for biology and therapy, we view surfaceomics as a critical piece of this quest for neo-epitope target discovery.

New ‘RNA lantern’ lets scientists peer into cellular dynamics in real time

Shen et al. investigate the use of Lactobacillus plantarum, a commensal bacterial strain, as a chassis for targeting the olfactory mucosa to facilitate precise nose-to-brain delivery of therapeutic mo...

New ‘RNA lantern’ lets scientists peer into cellular dynamics in real time

Tsusaka et al. discover that histone deacetylases, which are well known to remove protein modifications, such as lysine acetylation and β-hydroxybutyrylation, can also reverse their chemical activity ...

Thank you for your interest in attending the 2025 SoCal Undergraduate Chemistry Research Symposium. The event will be held on August 7, 2025 from 9:30 AM to 3:00 PM. Please plan to attend the entire e...

The cell surface is a dynamic interface that controls cell-cell communication and signal transduction relevant to organ development, homeostasis and repair, immune reactivity, and pathologies driven b...

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Human lectins are critical carbohydrate-binding proteins that recognize diverse glycoconjugates from microorganisms and can play a key role in host-microbe interactions. Despite their importance in im...