Cristalografía y Biología Estructural.
Design of IP3 mimics and other inositides to target cancer and infectious diseases.
Inositol phosphates (InsPs) are small pleiotropic molecules responsible of multiple signalling and metabolism events. IP3 and IP6 are a paradigm of the InsPs family due to their activities in Ca2+ signalling regulation and mRNA export respectively, among others. These compounds are regulated by the action of kinases and phosphatases, key enzymes in eukaryotic cells. Our group is focused on the structural biology of these enzymes with the aim to provide important knowledge for the InsPs regulation, since its miss regulation occurs in pathologies as cancer. Target the fungal InsP metabolism is also a strategy to combat diverse infections. In particular, our work encompass the study of protein-ligand interactions by X-ray Crystallography directed to identify and design molecules able to modulate these enzymes activity and therefore the InsPs levels and functions.
The TFM will consist of the development of specific tasks to get skill in the labs of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Protein Crystallization. The study will be carried out in the Department of Crystallography and Structural Biology, sharing facilities with several research groups. The student will develop skills for team-work and in experimental work data organization and presentation. The TFM student will participate in the following tasks :
- Protein expression and purification
- Characterization of protein-ligand interaction by biophysics techniques
- Protein crystallization in presence of ligands
- Preparation of crystals and X-ray data collection
- Initiation in structural solution