Human cells are regulated by many enzymatic cascades whose disruption causes many cancers. Restore the balance between these cascades through the development of molecules dedicated, is an important challenge.
That is the purpose of the research project entitled: “Plateau of tests to assist in the rational design of inhibitors of MAP kinase pathways and Akt “ (CRIKA MAPAkt which has been funded by the Central Region.)
It combines a team of ICOA (UMR 6005), S. Road’s one (carrying the project) that synthesize inhibitors dedicated to the modulation of two cellular signaling pathways: MAPK and Akt in a team of CBM (UPR 4301),and H. Benedetti’s one , who will develop tests and organize a board to test the effectiveness of these inhibitors.
These tools both chemical and techniques will be used widely and made available to teams of Great-West Cancéropole who also supports this project.
The chicken egg is a model of particular interest since it contains all the components that are essential for embryonic development in a closed chamber exposed to a putative aggressive milieu. The hen must anticipate the needs for embryonic growth and protection and therefore supply in the egg, in addition to the nutrients essential for embryogenesis, many molecules that participate in the defence of the embryo. The development of high-throughput methods in combination with the newly available chicken genomic sequence has recently revealed the presence of more than one thousand molecules which had not yet been characterized. Our objective is to further characterize biochemically and functionally the novel proteins involved in antimicrobial defences of egg.
Three teams of the Centre de Biophysique Moléculaire are involved in the structural part of this work: “Synthetic peptides, glycopeptides and proteins” (A. Delmas), Biomolecular NMR: Structure, dynamics and interactions” (C. Landon) and “Structural immunity” (A. Roussel). We will determine the 3D structures of a set of proteins selected for their high antimicrobial activities – some of them will be synthesised in the CBM -, in order to establish structure-function relationships, and to elaborate new compounds that can be of benefit for human or animal health.
