Human Genetic Variation Alters Anthrax Toxin Sensitivity
Martchenko, Candille et al., PNAS
Researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine show that genetic variation affecting capillary morphogenesis gene 2, or CMG2, dramatically alters toxin sensitivity in humans. In its analysis, the team reports on "a CMG2 single-nucleotide polymorphism occurring frequently in African and European populations [that they found] independently altered toxin uptake." The group goes on to suggest "testing of genomically characterized human cell populations may offer a broadly useful strategy for elucidating effects of genetic variation on infectious disease susceptibility."
NIGMS Funds Protein Prediction Tool Development
May 18, 2010
University of Missouri researchers are using a $1.18 million grant courtesy of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences to improve their protein prediction software system called MULTICOM. The software is a multi-level combination approach to improve the various steps in protein structure prediction. In contrast to those methods which look for the best templates, alignments and models, MULTICOM combines complementary and alternative templates, alignments and models to achieve on average better accuracy.
"Proteins are fundamental molecules that are involved in many basic and important functions," says Jianlin Cheng, assistant professor of computer science in the MU College of Engineering. "The structure of a protein determines the function. When a protein folds abnormally, dysfunctions occur, which lead to diseases, such as Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's and cancer. By converting protein sequences into predictable structures, scientists can view how a structure folds and thus predict how drugs will affect the protein. This information is useful when designing drugs and cures."
Cheng aims to use this grant to develop fast and cheap computational technology to accurately predict protein structure from protein sequence.