|
Structural and functional analysis of the protein synthetic machinery
Structural and functional characterization of some of the molecular mechanisms regulating the process of protein synthesis in Prokaryotes, Archaea and Eukaryotes, this goal is achieved using the main molecular biology approaches, production of recombinant proteins, in vitro transcription and translation systems, fast kinetic techniques for molecular interaction analysis. In addition, protein synthesis is exploited as a target to set up in vitro test in order to screen and characterize new antibiotic molecules.
Current studies involve:
- Translation initiation step in the model archaea Sulfolobus solfataricus.
- Set up of a recombinant proteins production system in the model archaea Sulfolobus acidocaldarius.
- Structural and functional characterization of the archaeal protein aIF5A and of its eukaryal homologous the oncogene eIF5A.
- Characterization of the Streptomyces AM-2504 strain producing a new potential antibiotic molecule.
|
Molecular and functional characterization of human polymorphisms
Recent efforts to map human genetic variation by 1000 Genome Project provide a validated haplotype map of 38 million single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP), 1.4 million short insertions and deletions, and more than 14,000 larger deletions. The data from the 1000 Genomes Project are widely used to screen variants
discovered in exome data from individuals with genetic disorders and in cancer genome projects. The combination of variation data with information about regulatory function can potentially improve the power to detect pathological non-coding variants.
In this context one project is directed toward the molecular and functional characterization of the new polymorphism rs_145581151 (ins/del 24bp) present in the promoter of TGM2 gene, using molecular biology techniques (PCR, sequencing and gene reporter assay).
An other project aims to elucidate the functional aspects related to a null phenotype produced by C609T point mutation in NQO1 gene. In this case the study is directed toward the characterization of the enzymes involved in post-translational and degradation process in different cell types.
|
