Publications associées à Anthrax toxin requires ZDHHC5-mediated palmitoylation of its surface-processing host enzymes

S-acylation and lipid exchange at the ER-Golgi membrane contact sites regulate pathogen entry in human cells

Cells have evolved endocytic pathways to internalize different molecules, to regulate intra-cellular communication and their interaction with external environment. Pathogens have co-evolved with cells to exploit these processes for infections. In particula ...

EPFL2024

Computational drug development for membrane protein targets

Henning Paul-Julius Stahlberg, Pierre Vogel, Shuguang Yuan, Dongchun Ni, Babatunde Edukpe Ekundayo

The application of computational biology in drug development for membrane protein targets has experienced a boost from recent developments in deep learning-driven structure prediction, increased speed and resolution of structure elucidation, machine learni ...

2024

Screening for drivers of SARS-CoV-2 uptake

Christoph Merten, Alexis Louis Autour

Genetic and cellular drivers of the cellular uptake of SARS-CoV-2 can be screened at high throughput via droplet microfluidics and size-exclusion methods for the analysis of the formation of fusions between cells expressing the virus's spike protein and ce ...

Nature Portfolio2023

Structural diversity of photoswitchable sphingolipids for optodynamic control of lipid microdomains

Samuel Mendes Leitão

Sphingolipids are a structurally diverse class of lipids predominantly found in the plasma membrane of eukaryotic cells. These lipids can laterally segregate with other rigid lipids and cholesterol into liquid-ordered domains that act as organizing centers ...

2023

Microfluidic device combining hydrodynamic and dielectrophoretic trapping for the controlled contact between single micro-sized objects and application to adhesion assays

Philippe Renaud, Arnaud Bertsch, Clémentine Sophie Sarah Lipp

The understanding of cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions via receptor and ligand binding relies on our ability to study the very first events of their contact. Of particular interest is the interaction between a T cell receptor and its cognate peptide-m ...

ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY2023

Selective integrin targeting with DNA-based nanomaterials

Eva Eugene Kurisinkal

Targeting cells specific to type and state remains a challenge in developing effective therapies, sensitive diagnostics, also robust and versatile tissue engineering. A promising strategy is to focuses on improving the inherent selectivity of the targeting ...

EPFL2022

Transposon-activated POU5F1B promotes colorectal cancer growth and metastasis

Didier Trono, Laurence Gouzi Abrami, Julien Léonard Duc, Sandra Eloise Kjeldsen, Alexandre Coudray, Sagane Dind, Evaristo Jose Planet Letschert, Laia Simo Riudalbas

The treatment of colorectal cancer (CRC) is an unmet medical need in absence of early diagnosis. Here, upon characterizing cancer-specific transposable element-driven transpochimeric gene transcripts (TcGTs) produced by this tumor in the SYSCOL cohort, we ...

Nature Research2022

Significance of Receptor Mobility in Multivalent Binding on Lipid Membranes

Maartje Martina Cornelia Bastings, Diana Kornelia Morzy

Numerous key biological processes rely on the concept of multivalency, where ligands achieve stable binding only upon engaging multiple receptors. These processes, like viral entry or immune synapse formation, occur on the diffusive cellular membrane. One ...

Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH2022

Mechanical Immunoengineering of T Cells for Enhanced Cancer Immunotherapy

Kewen Lei

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death globally. Immunotherapy represents one of the most promising cancer treatments inducing complete and durable responses in a fraction of cancer patients. Despite the unprecedented clinical success achieved by T c ...

EPFL2022

Engineering synthetic adhesins for biophysical investigation and rewiring of host-microbe interactions

Xavier Jean-Yves Pierrat

Host attachment is often a critical step in the onset of pathogenesis. To attach to host cells, bacteria have evolved a range of adhesins that bind to specific receptors. Some of these adhesins have been thoroughly characterized using biochemical technique ...

EPFL2022

Water as a contrast agent for imaging interfacial structure and ion transport in giant vesicles

David Roesel

Hydrated lipid bilayer membranes and their asymmetry play a fundamental role in living cells by maintaining and regulating concentration gradients between cells, their environment, and their compartments. They achieve this not only through various channels ...

EPFL2022

Method and system for determining intracellular mediators' activity

Horst Vogel, Philippe Renaud, Thamani Dahoun, Margaux Catherine Marie Duchamp, Marc Brugarolas Campillos

A method for determining the presence of a molecule coupled to the cytoplasmic side of a cellular membrane is disclosed. The method is implemented in a microfluidic setting and is particularly suitable for determining the presence and/or the activity of a ...

2022

Second harmonic scattering of water in a biological context

Tereza Schönfeldová

Water is one of the most abundant molecules in the universe. It forms a hydrogen bond network with unique structure and dynamics. Hydrogen bonding is highly relevant to many biological processes including membrane formation, protein folding, adsorption, an ...

EPFL2022

Identification of genes required for host-cell adhesion and antibiotic persistence of uropathogenic Escherichia coli via high-content screening

Thomas Marie Simonet

Uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) are the most common bacterial pathogens causing urinary tract infections (UTIs). Driven by the development of antibiotic resistant UPEC strains, UTIs have become a major public health issue and generate substantial hea ...

EPFL2022

Microfluidic T Cell Selection by Cellular Avidity

Armand Kurum, Li Tang, Alexandre Harari

No T cell receptor (TCR) T cell therapies have obtained clinical approval. The lack of strategies capable of selecting and recovering potent T cell candidates may be a contributor to this. Existing protocols for selecting TCR T cell clones for cell therapi ...

WILEY2022

The Mammalian Membrane Microenvironment Regulates the Sequential Attachment of Bacteria to Host Cells

Alexandre Louis André Persat, Xavier Jean-Yves Pierrat, Jeremy Pak Hei Wong

Pathogen attachment to host tissue is critical in the progress of many infections. Bacteria use adhesion in vivo to stabilize colonization and subsequently regulate the deployment of contact-dependent virulence traits. To specifically target host cells, th ...

2021

Passive and active ion permeation through lipid bilayers investigated by second harmonic water imaging

Maksim Eremchev

Lipid membranes are complex and dynamic systems which are known to mediate signaling processes between cells and their environment. To do this multiple ion channels and pumps are involved in controlling the in- and out-flux of various ions (K+, Na+, Mg2+, ...

EPFL2021

Golgi maturation-dependent glycoenzyme recycling controls glycosphingolipid biosynthesis and cell growth via GOLPH3

Anthony Vocat, Giovanni D'Angelo, Laura Capolupo, Riccardo Rizzo

Glycosphingolipids are important components of the plasma membrane where they modulate the activities of membrane proteins including signalling receptors. Glycosphingolipid synthesis relies on competing reactions catalysed by Golgi-resident enzymes during ...

WILEY2021

Chemical Cell Surface Modification and Analysis of Nanoparticle-Modified Living Cells

Harm-Anton Klok, Tanja Thomsen

Cells are promising as carriers that can enhance the delivery of nanomedicines. Cells that carry nanomedicinal cargo, either immobilized on the cell surface or internalized, can allow for highly specific delivery and can enable the transport of nanomedicin ...

AMER CHEMICAL SOC2021

Harnessing the Membrane Translocation Properties of AB Toxins for Therapeutic Applications

Françoise Gisou van der Goot Grunberg, Oksana Andrei Sergeeva

Over the last few decades, proteins and peptides have become increasingly more common as FDA-approved drugs, despite their inefficient delivery due to their inability to cross the plasma membrane. In this context, bacterial two-component systems, termed AB ...

2021