Parasites, photocrosslinking lipids, and activity-based probes

Henry Benns

Researchers from the Tate Group have published new review and research papers.

Henry Benns, a PhD student in the groups of Dr Matt Child and Prof. Ed Tate, has published a review in the Current Topics in Microbiology and Immunology (CTMI) book series on Activity-based Protein Profiling for the Study of Parasite Biology. The review discusses how functional profiling of enzyme activity using chemical proteomics has contributed to our understanding about the basic biology of parasitic organisms. Furthermore, it highlights how such approaches have facilitated the discovery of novel drug targets for many parasite-related diseases such as malaria, toxoplasmosis and schistosomiasis. Congratulations to Henry on his first publication!

Dr Roman Fedoryshchak has contributed to a recent publication with the group of Professor Herbert Waldmann. The paper in ChemBioChem presents a novel photocrosslinking analogue of myristic acid to study protein-protein interactions. Several interactions between myristoylated proteins and Unc119A/B have been confirmed via mass-spectrometry using this probe.

Work from Elena de Vita, previously a visiting researcher in the group, and Scott Lovell has been recently published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. The paper covers describes work developing activity based probes for the peptidase KLK6, and the collaboration was led by scientists at the German Cancer Research Centre (DFKZ) in Heidelberg. 

Ed has also been involved in a collaboration with Abigail Clements from the Department of Life Sciences and scientists at The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Australia leading to a recent paper in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. This work utilises plasma membrane profiling to identify host proteins whose cell-surface levels are altered during enterohemorrhagic E. coli infection. This quantitative cell-surface proteomics approach is the first report of the global manipulation of the epithelial cell surface by a bacterial pathogen and illustrates its power in uncovering critical aspects of bacterial infection biology.

Congratulations to everyone on their work!