News from the Institute

Cells convert the energy extracted from foodstuff into ATP, the universal currency of cellular energy. Mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation is carried out by five large enzyme complexes.

The Zickermann group from Institute of Biochemistry 2 together with colleagues from the Cluster of Excellence Macromolecular Complexes in Frankfurt and from Freiburg University solved the 3D structure of mitochondrial complex I, the largest and most complex enzyme of this fundamental metabolic pathway.

EMBO will fund her work that is focused on understanding the role of linear ubiquitylation in tumor stromal crosstalk.

A multidisciplinary, international team led by C. Kubisch (Ulm University), K. Ramadan (Oxford University), J. Terzic (Split University), D. Amor (University of Melbourne) and I. Dikic (Goethe University in Frankfurt) reports in today's online issue of Nature Genetics the discovery of a hitherto unknown mutation causing early onset liver cancer.

Individuals carrying this mutation are highly likely to develop liver cancer during childhood, and also show multiple signs of premature aging. The mutation disrupts the function of a gene called SPRTN, resulting in accumulation of DNA damage during each cell division and subsequent chromosome instability.

The Vallee Foundation announced the appointment of six new Vallee Visiting Professors (VVPs), who will receive the resources to spend one month at a premier biomedical research institute of their choice. Besides Ivan Dikic, the award goes to Bonnie Bassler, Chris Dobson, Tyler Jacks, Thomas Shenk and Andreas Strasser this year. Since 1997, 47 VVPs have been appointed, and the program has been a great success in fostering intellectual exchange, building scientific partnerships and kicking off exciting new projects. Ivan Dikic will join Harvard Medical School in 2015 for his VVP sabbatical.

RAF kinases are direct RAS effector proteins and upon activation they trigger the classical MAPK signaling pathway that control various fundamental cellular processes. RAF family comprises of ARAF, BRAF and CRAF of which ARAF remains understudied. In a cover story published this week in Science Signaling, Krishna Rajalingam's group demonstrate an obligatory role for ARAF kinase in mediating MEK1/2-ERK1/2 activation and tumour cell migration in a cell type dependent manner.