Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Company today announced it has further expanded its protein homeostasis program with the initiation of a Phase I clinical trial for an oral formulation of MLN9708, the Company’s second-generation proteasome inhibitor. An intravenous formulation of MLN9708 entered clinical trials in March. [More]

A tumor-suppressing protein snatches up an important cancer-promoting enzyme and tags it with molecules that condemn it to destruction, a research team led by scientists at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center reports this week in the journal Molecular Cell. [More]

LifeSensors, Inc., a biotechnology company specializing in protein expression technologies and ubiquitin pathway research tools, announced today their worldwide, exclusive license for high affinity ubiquitin traps. These new research tools, developed by Dr. Manuel S. Rodriguez of the proteomics unit of the CICbioGUNE in Spain, will be launched in October 2009. [More]

Cellzome announces today, the publication entitled "Tankyrase inhibition stabilizes axin and antagonizes Wnt signalling" is now available online in Nature. [More]

The mainstay immune system protein TRAF6 plays an unexpected, key role activating a cell signaling molecule that in mutant form is associated with cancer growth, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report in the Aug. 28 edition of Science. [More]

The mainstay immune system protein TRAF6 plays an unexpected, key role activating a cell signaling molecule that in mutant form is associated with cancer growth, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report in the Aug. 28 edition of Science. [More]

A protein specialist that opens the genomic door for DNA repair and gene expression also turns out to be a multi-tasking workhorse that protects the tips of chromosomes and dabbles in a protein-destruction complex, a team lead by researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center reports in the Aug. 13 edition of Molecular Cell. [More]

Gary Chiang, Ph.D., and colleagues at Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham) have elucidated how the stability of the REDD1 protein is regulated. The REDD1 protein is a critical inhibitor of the mTOR signaling pathway, which controls cell growth and proliferation. [More]

Researchers have discovered a key to the function of a specific protein that helps control the levels of other critical proteins within cells, including a protein that suppresses the spread of cancer. The new information about the mechanism of action of the protein, called gp78, may enable researchers to explore new types of therapies to prevent the spread of cancer. The study, by researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, was published in the June 26, 2009, issue of Molecular Cell. [More]

In three studies, including the most comprehensive study of autism genetics to date, investigators funded in part by the National Institutes of Health have identified common and rare genetic factors that affect the risk of autism spectrum disorders. [More]

Researchers have made an important step forward in understanding the complex genetic structure of autism spectrum disorders. [More]

A research team has connected more of the intricate pieces of the autism puzzle, with two studies that identify genes with important contributions to the disorder. [More]

In an in vitro study, led by Grace Gill, PhD, Tufts University School of Medicine, researchers discovered how a protein called SUMO (Small Ubiquitin-related Modifier) guides an enzyme complex that alters the structure of chromatin to regulate expression of genes. [More]

A single crafty protein allows the deadly bacterium Salmonella enterica to both invade cells lining the intestine and hijack cellular functions to avoid destruction, Yale researchers report in the April 17 issue of the journal Cell. [More]

The new study, which was published on April 12, 2009, in an advanced online edition of the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, draws new parallels between the Rad60 DNA repair factor and SUMO, a small ubiquitin-like modifier, which are both essential for maintaining genome stability during replication. [More]