Signaling processes with biomedical and biotechnological implications

The proposal is centered in the structural analysis of molecular sensors and receptors are proteins that detect reversible variations in the concentration of hormones, second messengers or ions, and transduce those alterations to trigger changes at cellular level such as proliferation, differentiation or survival. These responses rely on the formation of dynamical supramolecular complexes between sensors, signal molecules and ions and downstream protein components. These complexes amplify the signal, increase its specificity and sometimes, ensure the localization of the system into a particular cellular place.Understanding how protein-protein interactions take place at atomic level is being critical to perform a structure-guided rational design of small molecule.