How cells store genetic information

Colin Adrain

Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Portugal

Errors in the folding of proteins, which contain genetic information, can cause diseases such as cardiac arrhythmias, neonatal diabetes, pigmented retinitis and other neurodegenerative problems.

More than half of the drugs used to treat the symptoms of these diseases are directed at the protein membranes, which then release them outside of the cell. However, the transit of many of these signaling proteins is not fully understood.

The project seeks to better understand how proteins fold in the endoplasmic reticle, a complex system of membranes distributed around the cytoplasm. The aim is to develop in-depth knowledge of the biological processes by which the proteins fold in the cellular membrane.

• Pedro Domingos, Institute of Chemical and Biological Technology (ITQB-NOVA), Portugal

• Kvido Strisovsky, Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the CAS, República Checa

Organismal role of the ER membrane complex: a conserved machinery required for membrane protein biogenesis.

€960,769