Chemical biology articles within Nature

Featured

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Biochemical and molecular dynamics studies show that the third intracellular loop of G protein-coupled receptors autoregulates the receptor activity and tunes the signalling specificity by controlling access to the G protein-binding site.

    • Fredrik Sadler
    • , Ning Ma
    •  & Sivaraj Sivaramakrishnan

  • News & Views |

    The discovery of bacterial compounds that have antifungal properties opens up opportunities for the development of agents that protect crops from a devastating disease.

    • Andrew Mitchinson

  • Article |

    Bitopic functionalized ligands based on fentanyl can target the sodium ion-binding site of the mu-opioid receptor and selectively modulate downstream signalling pathways, potentially leading to safer analgesics.

    • Abdelfattah Faouzi
    • , Haoqing Wang
    •  & Susruta Majumdar

  • Article |

    β2-adrenergic receptor(β2AR) signalling induces ERK activity at endosomes, but not at the plasma membrane, and this activity is dependent on active, endosome-localized Gαs and requires ligand-stimulated β2AR endocytosis.

    • Yonghoon Kwon
    • , Sohum Mehta
    •  & Jin Zhang

  • Article |

    NMR spectroscopy has been used to guide the directed evolution of myoglobin to a Kemp eliminase with high catalytic efficiency, outlining an approach that is likely to be generally applicable to other enzyme activities.

    • Sagar Bhattacharya
    • , Eleonora G. Margheritis
    •  & Ivan V. Korendovych

  • Research Briefing |

    Computational simulation of interactions of each of 75 million molecules with a model structure of the 5-HT2A receptor, which mediates the actions of psychedelic drugs, identified molecules that selectively activate the receptor. When tested in mice, two of these compounds had antidepressant-like actions without the side effects of psychedelic drugs.

  • News & Views |

    Can artificial cells be built from basic components? Systems that have complex architectures and functions evocative of natural cells have been prepared by recycling the contents of bacterial cells in synthetic droplets.

    • N. Amy Yewdall

  • News & Views |

    When combined, two drugs alter the activity of a protein complex called target of rapamycin complex 1 such that it is inhibited in the brain but not the body, enabling the treatment of brain tumours in mice without systemic toxicity.

    • Matthias P. Wymann
    •  & Chiara Borsari

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The combination of the brain-permeable mTOR inhibitor RapaLink-1 and the brain-impermeable FKBP12 ligand RapaBlock enable brain-specific inhibition of mTOR.

    • Ziyang Zhang
    • , Qiwen Fan
    •  & Kevan M. Shokat

  • Article |

    CDK11 associates with SF3B1 and phosphorylates threonine residues at the N terminus of SF3B1 during spliceosome activation, and the inhibition of CDK11 blocks the activation and leads to widespread intron retention and the accumulation of non-functional spliceosomes on pre-mRNAs and chromatin.

    • Milan Hluchý
    • , Pavla Gajdušková
    •  & Dalibor Blazek

  • Article |

    A bacteriogenic strategy for constructing membrane-bounded, molecularly crowded, and compositionally, structurally and morphologically complex synthetic cells provides opportunities for the fabrication of new synthetic cell modules and augmented living/synthetic cell constructs.

    • Can Xu
    • , Nicolas Martin
    •  & Stephen Mann

  • News & Views |

    The engineering of cells to express synthetic adhesion molecules creates a simple logic for patterning cell populations with visible boundaries. The approach paves the way for smart living materials and programmable biosensors.

    • Luis Ángel Fernández

  • News & Views |

    A compound made by plants used in traditional medicine has been prepared by chemical synthesis, providing enough for biological testing. The unexpected finding that it acts at opioid receptors raises prospects for drug discovery.

    • Nicholas P. R. Onuska
    •  & Joshua G. Pierce

  • Article |

    A study demonstrates the rational de novo design of water-soluble assemblies constructed from long 310-helical peptides, and details their characterization by circular dichroism spectroscopy, analytical ultracentrifugation and X-ray crystallography.

    • Prasun Kumar
    • , Neil G. Paterson
    •  & Derek N. Woolfson

  • Article |

    Structural determination of GAT1 using cryo-electron microscopy provides insights into the biology and pharmacology of this GABA transporter.

    • Zenia Motiwala
    • , Nanda Gowtham Aduri
    •  & Cornelius Gati

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Synthetic chimeric orthogonal IL-2 receptors that incorporate the intracellular domain of receptors for other γ-chain cytokines such as IL-9 can reroute orthogonal signalling and alter the phenotype of T cells to improve anti-tumour responses.

    • Anusha Kalbasi
    • , Mikko Siurala
    •  & K. Christopher Garcia

  • News & Views |

    Synthetic receptor proteins can enable customized and flexible control of immune cells called T lymphocytes. A defined framework for the proteins’ design now improves their potential for use in cancer immunotherapy.

    • Mohamad Hamieh
    •  & Maria Themeli

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Chimeric triterpene synthases are identified that catalyse non-squalene-dependent triterpene biosynthesis.

    • Hui Tao
    • , Lukas Lauterbach
    •  & Tiangang Liu

  • Review Article |

    Recent progress in computational enzyme design, active site engineering and directed evolution are reviewed, highlighting methodological innovations needed to deliver improved designer biocatalysts.

    • Sarah L. Lovelock
    • , Rebecca Crawshaw
    •  & Anthony P. Green

  • Article |

    Select chemical compounds enriched in human odour activate an olfactory glomerulus in the brain of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which strengthens host-seeking behaviour and helps explain their strong preference for biting humans.

    • Zhilei Zhao
    • , Jessica L. Zung
    •  & Carolyn S. McBride

  • News & Views |

    Compounds that form reversible covalent bonds with lysine amino-acid residues in proteins have high potential for drug discovery. A chemical group has been reported that prolongs the time for which such compounds bind to their targets.

    • Stephan M. Hacker

  • Article |

    A bacterial enzyme is characterized and demonstrated to have Ni2+-dependent activity and high specificity for free guanidine enabling the bacteria to use guanidine as the sole nitrogen source for growth.

    • D. Funck
    • , M. Sinn
    •  & J. S. Hartig

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The bacterial genotoxin colibactin triggers prophage-mediated lysis of neighbouring bacteria, a finding that provides insight into the dynamics of microbial communities and relationships between bacterial metabolite production and phage behaviour.

    • Justin E. Silpe
    • , Joel W. H. Wong
    •  & Emily P. Balskus

  • News & Views |

    The chirality, or handedness, of nanoparticles is shown to be a key factor in determining how well such particles engage with the immune system — a finding that might help to inform the design of vaccines and anticancer therapeutics.

    • Alexander Hooftman
    •  & Luke A. J. O’Neill

  • Article |

    The discovery and synthesis of a colistin congener provide a promising clinical lead against mcr-1-encoding colistin-resistant pathogens, which are responsible for an increasing number of deaths from antibiotic-resistant infections.

    • Zongqiang Wang
    • , Bimal Koirala
    •  & Sean F. Brady

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