PROTEINS RELATED TO PATHOGENESIS OF DISEASES, VIRAL PROTEINS, CELL DIVISION, SIGNALLING AND CHROMATIN PROCESSES

The outstanding research questions of our BAG focus on proteins and their complexes involved in a variety of processes, ranging from cell homeostasis (from gene regulation to folding quality control, from energy metabolism to signal transduction) to communication and surface recognition (including trans-interactions between cell adhesion molecules, components of the extracellular matrix weaving, as well as antigen-antibody interactions for vaccine development and optimization). Key to several projects is the characterization of the mechanisms associated to enzyme function in various organisms, including bacteria, viruses, plants, animals and humans for downstream drug discovery campaigns. Emphasis is also given to research focusing on engineering protein and enzymes for future industrial applications, as well as to understand the impact of pathogenic mutations on protein structures, providing a genotype-to-molecular phenotype rationale to disease development.

我们的BAG研究团队聚焦于蛋白质及其复合物的前沿科学问题，这些分子参与了从细胞稳态（涵盖基因调控、折叠质量控制、能量代谢至信号转导）到细胞通讯与表面识别（包括细胞粘附分子间的反式相互作用、细胞外基质的构成成分，以及疫苗开发与优化中的抗原-抗体相互作用）等多种生命过程。多个项目的核心在于解析不同生物（细菌、病毒、植物、动物及人类）中酶功能相关的分子机制，为下游药物发现研究提供支撑。此外，研究还着重于蛋白质与酶的工程改造以推动未来工业应用，以及阐明致病性突变对蛋白质结构的影响，从而为疾病发生发展提供从基因型到分子表型的理论依据。