MP
Conversion of Human Multidrug Transporter P-glycoprotein (ABCB1) from Drug Efflux to Uptake Pump: Evidence for a Switch Region Modulating the Direction of Substrate Transport.
Sajid A, Ranganathan N, Guha R, Murakami M, Ahmed S, Durell SR, Ambudkar SV.
J Mol Biol. 2025 Feb 1;437(7):168979.
doi: 10.1016/j.jmb.2025.168979. Epub ahead of print.
PMID: 39900286.
Computational and experimental mapping of the allosteric network of two manganese ABC transporters.
Duman O, Kuznetsova A, Levanon NL, Grupper M, Ersoy AA, Acar B, Kessel A, Ben-Tal N, Lewinson O, Haliloglu T.
Protein Sci. 2025 Feb;34(2):e70039.
doi: 10.1002/pro.70039.
PMID: 39887508.
Actinorhodopsin: an efficient and robust light-driven proton pump for bionanotechnological applications.
Ayoub N, Djabeur N, Harder D, Jeckelmann JM, Ucurum Z, Hirschi S, Fotiadis D.
Sci Rep. 2025 Feb 3;15(1):4054.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-88055-8.
PMID: 39900604.
Specificity and tunability of efflux pumps: A new role for the proton gradient?
Gerry M, Kirby D, Alexandrov BS, Segal D, Zilman A.
PLoS Comput Biol. 2025 Jan 27;21(1):e1012772.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1012772. eCollection 2025 Jan.
PMID: 39869656.
Structural study of the chlorophyll between Lhca8 and PsaJ in an Antarctica green algal photosystem I-LHCI supercomplex revealed by its atomic structure.
Tsai PC, Kato K, Shen JR, Akita F.
Biochim Biophys Acta Bioenerg. 2025 Feb 11:149543.
doi: 10.1016/j.bbabio.2025.149543. Online ahead of print.
PMID: 39947506.
Structural bioinformatic study of six human olfactory receptors and their AlphaFold3 predicted water-soluble QTY variants and OR1A2 with an odorant octanoate and TAAR9 with spermidine.
Johnsson F, Karagöl T, Karagöl A, Zhang S.
QRB Discov. 2024 Dec 9;6:e2.
doi: 10.1017/qrd.2024.18. eCollection 2025.
PMID: 39944883.
Annealing synchronizes the TOM complex with Tom7 in a new orientation.
Yang L, Liu M, Qi L, Liu Y, Lin X, Zhang YZ, Shen QT.
Arch Biochem Biophys. 2025 Feb 7:110329.
doi: 10.1016/j.abb.2025.110329. Online ahead of print.
PMID: 39924140.
Electrosome assembly: Structural insights from high voltage-activated calcium channel (CaV)-chaperone interactions.
Chen Z, Minor DL Jr.
Biochem Soc Trans. 2025 Feb 6;53(1):BST20240422.
doi: 10.1042/BST20240422.
PMID: 39912874.
Review.
Unconventional protein secretion: Exploring membrane proteins and beyond.
Lin L.
Curr Opin Cell Biol. 2025 Feb 3;93:102469.
doi: 10.1016/j.ceb.2025.102469. Online ahead of print.
PMID: 39903992.
Review.
Bacterial siderophores: diversity, uptake pathways and applications.
Schalk IJ.
Nat Rev Microbiol. 2025 Jan;23(1):24-40.
doi: 10.1038/s41579-024-01090-6. Epub 2024 Sep 5.
PMID: 39251840.
Membrane
Interfacial structure and protein incorporation in sparsely tethered phospholipid membranes.
Gavutis M, Paracini N, Lakey J, Valiokas R, Clifton LA.
J Colloid Interface Sci. 2025 Jan 27;686:163-174.
doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2025.01.224. Online ahead of print.
PMID: 39892008.
The structures of the peptide transporters SLC15A3 and SLC15A4 reveal the recognition mechanisms for substrate and TASL.
Zhang Z, Kasai S, Sakaniwa K, Fujimura A, Ohto U, Shimizu T.
Structure. 2025 Feb 6;33(2):330-337.e4.
doi: 10.1016/j.str.2024.11.019. Epub 2024 Dec 23.
PMID: 39719710.
Ion coupling and inhibitory mechanisms of the human presynaptic high-affinity choline transporter CHT1.
Qiu Y, Gao Y, Bai Q, Zhao Y.
Structure. 2025 Feb 6;33(2):321-329.e5.
doi: 10.1016/j.str.2024.11.009. Epub 2024 Dec 9.
PMID: 39657660.
Bending the rules: molecular dynamics of hydroxylated sphingolipid membranes with 2-hydroxyoleic acid.
Sessa L, Concilio S, Di Martino M, Romanini D, Busquets X, Piotto S.
Chem Phys Lipids. 2025 Feb 11:105475.
doi: 10.1016/j.chemphyslip.2025.105475. Online ahead of print.
PMID: 39947342.
Peripheral membrane protein endophilin B1 probes, perturbs and permeabilizes lipid bilayers.
Thorlacius A, Rulev M, Sundberg O, Sundborger-Lunna A.
Commun Biol. 2025 Feb 5;8(1):182.
doi: 10.1038/s42003-025-07610-1.
PMID: 39910321.
Free Energy, Rates, and Mechanism of Transmembrane Dimerization in Lipid Bilayers from Dynamically Unbiased Molecular Dynamics Simulations.
Jackel E, Lazzeri G, Covino R.
J Phys Chem B. 2025 Feb 6;129(5):1586-1596.
doi: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.4c05242. Epub 2025 Jan 23.
PMID: 39848609.
Chemistries on the inner leaflet of the cell membrane.
Xie W, Kong Y, Ren C, Wen Y, Ying M, Xing H.
Chem Commun (Camb). 2025 Feb 4;61(12):2387-2402.
doi: 10.1039/d4cc05186f.
PMID: 39810742.
Review.
Molecules
Steroids and steroid-like compounds alter the ion permeability of phospholipid bilayers via distinct interactions with lipids and interfacial water.
Larder M, Crowley J, Hossain SI, Deplazes E.
Phys Chem Chem Phys. 2025 Jan 22;27(4):2101-2113.
doi: 10.1039/d4cp03254c.
PMID: 39764716.
Solubilization of Membrane Proteins using designed protein WRAPS
Ljubica Mihaljević, David E. Kim, Helen E. Eisenach, Pooja D. Bandawane, Andrew J. Borst, Alexis Courbet, Everton Bettin, Qiushi Liu, Connor Weidle, Sagardip Majumder, Xinting Li, Mila Lamb, Analisa Nicole Azcárraga Murray, Rashmi Ravichandran, Elizabeth C. Williams, Shuyuan Hu, Lynda Stuart, Linda Grillová, Nicholas R. Thomson, Pengxiang Chang, Melissa J. Caimano, Kelly L. Hawley, Neil P. King, David Baker.
bioRxiv 2025.02.04.636539;
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.02.04.636539.
A Practical Approach for Polarity and Quantity Controlled Assembly of Membrane Proteins into Nanoliposomes.
Zhang S, Lin P, Komatsubara F, Nakata E, Morii T.
Chembiochem. 2025 Feb 6:e202401041.
doi: 10.1002/cbic.202401041. Online ahead of print.
PMID: 39915241.
Lock and key: Quest to find the most compatible membrane mimetic for studying membrane proteins in native environment.
Yadav R, Gupta DP, Singh C.
Biochim Biophys Acta Biomembr. 2025 Feb 4:184414.
doi: 10.1016/j.bbamem.2025.184414. Online ahead of print.
PMID: 39914557.
Review.
Interaction of biomimetic lipid membranes with detergents with different physicochemical characteristics.
Oliveira MSS, Caritá AC, Riske KA.
Chem Phys Lipids. 2025 Jan 31:105473.
doi: 10.1016/j.chemphyslip.2025.105473. Online ahead of print.
PMID: 39894382.
Methods
Fluor NMR study of amino acid derived ligand to study TSPO.
Duma L, Schneider S, Martinez A, Hachet C, Bihel F, Lacapere JJ.
Biochimie. 2025 Feb 4:S0300-9084(25)00026-4.
doi: 10.1016/j.biochi.2025.01.015. Online ahead of print.
PMID: 39914698.
DNA Logic Gate-Triggered Membrane Fusion for Accurately Detecting and Killing Cancer Cells.
Tang C, Feng L, Ling P, Wang Q, Xu W, Song D, Qiao Y, Gao F.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2025 Feb 5.
doi: 10.1021/acsami.4c20737. Online ahead of print.
PMID: 39907089.
Probing Ligand-Induced Conformational Changes in an MFS Transporter in vivo Using Site-Directed PEGylation.
Booncherm V, Gill H, Anderson E, Mostafa S, Mercado C, Jiang X.
J Mol Biol. 2025 Feb 15;437(4):168941. doi: 10.1016/j.jmb.2025.168941. Epub 2025 Jan 10.
PMID: 39799991.
Determination of protein transporter function using Raman spectroscopy.
Gilchrist D, Islam M, Akram MS, Dean P.
Microbiology (Reading). 2025 Feb;171(2).
doi: 10.1099/mic.0.001526.
PMID: 39928562.
Native ambient mass spectrometry of membrane proteins directly from bacterial colonies.
Du Y, Cooper HJ.
Chem Commun (Camb). 2025 Feb 18.
doi: 10.1039/d4cc03881a. Online ahead of print.
PMID: 39963858.
Microbio
Decoding MexB efflux pump genes: structural, molecular, and phylogenetic analysis of multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
Habib MB, Shah NA, Amir A, Alghamdi HA, Tariq MH, Nisa K, Ammoun M.
Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2025 Jan 21;14:1519737.
doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2024.1519737. eCollection 2024.
PMID: 39906216.
Determination of Pseudomonas aeruginosa MexXY-OprM substrate profile in a major efflux knockout system reveals distinct antibiotic substrate classes.
Kavanaugh LG, Hariharan SM, Conn GL.
Microbiol Spectr. 2025 Feb 6:e0290324.
doi: 10.1128/spectrum.02903-24. Online ahead of print.
PMID: 39912696.
Miscellaneous
Drill, baby, drill? Trump policies will hurt climate – but US green transition is under way.
Tollefson J.
Nature. 2025 Feb 4.
doi: 10.1038/d41586-025-00243-8. Epub ahead of print.
PMID: 39905254.
Researchers have begun plugging US president Donald Trump’s energy and climate policies into their models, and the early results suggest far-reaching environmental, health and economic consequences.
It’s not clear whether Trump will be able to accomplish his goals. Market forces are turning the tide towards green energy and US businesses and local governments might push back against the loss of climate investments that Congress approved in 2022 as part of the Inflation Reduction Act.
‘Mind-boggling’: US CDC orders gender-related terms cut from scientific papers.
Heidt A.
Nature. 2025 Feb 4.
doi: 10.1038/d41586-025-00367-x. Epub ahead of print.
PMID: 39905253.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has mandated that all of its researchers’ under-review papers be withdrawn so they can be checked for compliance with a controversial executive order signed by President Trump. Manuscripts must not include any mention of terms including ‘gender’, ‘transgender’ and ‘non-binary’, among others. It is uncertain whether journals, which have their own rules for discussing gender and sex, will go along with the directive. “Unfortunately, I see two things happening: a lot of these withdrawn papers will never be published” because collaborators outside the CDC aren’t going to agree to omit data, says social epidemiologist Ayden Scheim, “and in the long term, a lot of research that focuses on health inequities for women or LGBTQ+ people will disappear”.
Health agencies purge Trump-targeted programs and websites
Jocelyn Kaiser, Meredith Wadman
Science 31 Jan 2025
On Friday Jan 31st, several US government public-health datasets — including from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — became unavailable online as agencies moved to comply with wide-ranging executive orders issued by President Donald Trump, which ban work related to topics including diversity, equity and inclusion. “It’s like a data apocalypse,” virologist Angela Rasmussen told Science. Some material is back online, but there is much uncertainty.
The American Society for Microbiology altered its website to remove references to diversity and equity and temporarily removed articles about scientists from under-represented groups — raising an outcry from some of its members. The organization’s president says it was following legal advice in the hope of protecting its federally funded programmes from the impact of wide-ranging executive orders issued by President Donald Trump which banned federal funding related to topics including diversity equity and inclusion.Private funders are also reacting. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) the second-wealthiest medical-research foundation in the world has terminated a US$60-million initiative intended to boost diversity in science education and scrubbed related information from its website. HHMI did not give a reason but some scientists suspect it’s related to the controversial Trump orders. It’s “disappointing” says neuroscientist Danielle Beckman. “Now is the time that we need private funders to fill the gap that the new administration has left.”
‘Devastating’ cuts to NIH grants by Trump’s team put on hold by US judge.
Kozlov M, Garisto D, Ledford H.
Nature. 2025 Feb 10.
doi: 10.1038/d41586-025-00436-1. Epub ahead of print.
PMID: 39930050.
The ruling temporarily halts a policy slashing research-overhead costs that left some universities wondering how to make ends meet.
A US judge has blocked a 15% cap on ‘research overhead’ that would have slashed billions of dollars of funding for universities and hospitals as part of President Donald Trump’s controversial crackdown of government spending. The policy, announced by the US National Institutes of Health on Friday, would affect research institutions’ ability to pay for electricity, computing resources, administrative personnel and other necessities that keep research projects up and running. The pause is in response to lawsuits filed by US states, universities and organizations that represent universities, which contend that the policy was illegal and would cause “cutting-edge work to cure and treat human disease” to “grind to a halt”. Some research institutions had already frozen projects as a precaution.
How the World Health Organization can thrive without the United States.
Nature. 2025 Feb;638(8049):8.
doi: 10.1038/d41586-025-00283-0.
PMID: 39905139.
The decision by US President Donald Trump to withdraw the country from the World Health Organization (WHO) is a heavy blow, says a Nature editorial — but one that can be recovered from. “The organization cannot allow itself to become so reliant on a single donor again,” it argues. Instead, the WHO’s remaining 193 members — particularly the high-income and upper-middle-income nations — and philanthropic foundations should step up to fill the gap left by the United States.
How are researchers using AI? Survey reveals pros and cons for science.
Naddaf M.
Nature. 2025 Feb 4.
doi: 10.1038/d41586-025-00343-5. Epub ahead of print.
PMID: 39905251.
A survey of nearly 5,000 researchers worldwide by publisher Wiley suggests that using artificial intelligence (AI) tools for processes such as preparing manuscripts, writing grant applications and peer review will become widely accepted within the next two years. Only 45% of the first wave of respondents (1,043 researchers) said that they had actually used AI to help with their research, and the most common uses they cited were translation, proofreading and editing manuscripts. However, the majority of those surveyed expressed interest in expanding their AI use.
Are the Internet and AI affecting our memory? What the science says.
Pearson H.
Nature. 2025 Feb;638(8049):26-28.
doi: 10.1038/d41586-025-00292-z.
PMID: 39910382.
Is having the world’s knowledge at our fingertips tempting us to do some serious ‘cognitive offloading’ — meaning we remember less information ourselves? Some studies suggest that the Internet and digital technologies can affect performance on specific tasks: for example people who use GPS devices seem worse at recalling routes. But there is not convincing evidence that the Internet is weakening our memory more broadly (you’re probably just getting older, says Daniel Schacter, who studies memory). That story could change with generative-AI tools such as ChatGPT say researchers: the output tends to be riddled with convincing errors that might seed false memories.
Mini CRISPR
Single-AAV CRISPR editing of skeletal muscle in non-human primates with NanoCas, an ultracompact nuclease
Rauch et al. bioRxiv 2025.01.29.635576;
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.01.29.635576
Scientists have unveiled a ‘mini’ version of the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology that can fit inside an adeno-associated virus (AAV), a vector often used to deliver gene therapy. The CRISPR machinery, particularly the 1,300 amino acid-strong Cas9 enzyme, is bulky, which can make it difficult to transport in the body. The scaled down version swaps Cas9 out for ‘NanoCas’, a DNA-snipping enzyme made of around 900 fewer amino acids. The team found that, packaged inside an AAV, the mini CRISPR successfully reached and edited genes in liver and heart tissue in mice, and skeletal muscle and heart tissue in macaque monkeys.
The science behind the first pig-organ transplant trial in humans.
Mallapaty S, Kozlov M.
Nature. 2025 Feb;638(8050):303-304.
doi: 10.1038/d41586-025-00368-w.
PMID: 39905255.
The first clinical trial testing whether pig organs can be safely transplanted into people has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. Six people with end-stage renal disease will receive kidneys from pigs that have been genetically modified to reduce the risk of the organ being rejected. Patients will be closely monitored for about six months for serious adverse events and signs of kidney damage, and then followed up with for the rest of their lives. Around half a dozen people have received organs from gene-edited pigs before, but these surgeries were approved on a case-by-case, compassionate basis.
New Erasmus International Master’s Program on Biomembranes
very exciting opportunity that ”offers cutting-edge training in biomembranes covering key topics such as lipids and membrane proteins and prepares the next generation of scientists entrepreneurs and managers to explore the complex behavior of cell membranes and unlock their therapeutic potential”.
🚨 ⏰ 📝 deadline: April 6th 2025 – 23:00 🚨 ⏰ 📝
https://life.univ-cotedazur.eu/international/erasmus-mundus-joint-master-membiomed