Institute of Structural Biology
University of Bonn

Congratulations to Jan Gerhartz, Dominika Pieńkowska, Ina Dressel and Thomas Geiger on a paper in Cell Chemical Biology.  An engineered cereblon optimized for high throughput screening and molecular glue discovery - now in Cell Chemical Biology. Congratulations Jan Gerhartz, Dominika Pieńkowska, Ina Dressel and Thomas Geiger. CRBN is one of the most popular E3 ligases in the Targeted Protein Degradation space, but it requires a complex with adapter protein DDB1 to express well. This new soluble CRBN construct enables, high yield expression, rapid screening for novel CRBN binders and can also be used for CRBN interactome assessment with molec...

Congratulations to Thomas Geiger on a new Book Chapter published in Annual Reports in Medicinal Chemistry. Proteolysis targeting chimeras (PROTACs) are hetero-bifunctional molecules that recruit E3 ubiquitin ligases, resulting in polyubiquitination and proteasomal degradation of disease-causing proteins. PROTACs consist of a binder to an E3 ubiquitin ligase connected with a linker to a small molecule, which can recruit protein of interest. Their design makes them modular, and historically majority of the E3 or target binders were reversible small molecules. In recent years, multiple covalent approaches have been utilized in development of PROT...

We had recently discovered a new signalling cascade in type III CRISPR immune systems, the CalpLTS cascade. In a nutshell, the CalpL protease senses cyclic oligonucleotides that are produced by the type III recognition complex, cleaves the anti-sigma factor CalpT and thereby releases the sigma factor CalpS. In our new study we have discovered that the multi functional CalpL protein also has a ring nuclease activity that degrades the cyclic oligonucleotides. It thus acts as a molecular timer that attenuates the immune response. You can read all the interesting details here....