Nature Structural & Molecular Biology: Cryo-EM structures reveal the molecular mechanism of SUMO E1–E2 thioester transfer (Olsen Lab, Sung Lab)

September 26, 2025

 Anindita Nayak, Digant Nayak, Lijia Jia, Eliza A. Ruben, Suryavathi Viswanadhapalli, Priscila dos Santos Bury, Khaled Mohamed Nassar, Corey H. Yu, Anna A. Tumanova, Caleb M. Stratton, Pirouz Ebadi, Dmitri N. Ivanov, Patrick Sung, Ratna K. Vadlamudi, Elizabeth V. Wasmuth & Shaun K. Olsen Abstract Post-translational modification of proteins by SUMO (small ubiquitin-like modifier) regulates fundamental [...]

BioRxiv: Phosphoregulation of RAD51AP1 function in homology-directed repair (Sung Lab)

September 22, 2025

 Neelam Sharma, Mollie Uhrig, Youngho Kwon, Patrick Sung,  Claudia Wiese ABSTRACT Homology-directed DNA repair (HDR) is critical for genome stability and tumor suppression. HDR is initiated by the RAD51 single-stranded (ss)DNA nucleoprotein filament which conducts the homology search and invades a homologous DNA template, creating a displacement-loop (D-loop). The RAD51 filament is assisted in these processes by several proteins. One [...]

Protein Science: Molecular basis of EWS interdomain self-association and its role in condensate formation (Libich Lab)

September 22, 2025

 Erich J. Sohn, Kandarp A. Sojitra, Leticia Rodrigues, Xiaoping Xu, Bess Frost, Jeetain Mittal, David S. Libich Abstract Ewing sarcoma, the second most common pediatric bone and soft tissue cancer, is caused by the aberrant fusion of the RNA-binding protein EWS (EWS) low-complexity domain (EWSLCD) to the DNA-binding domain of the transcription factor friend leukemia integration 1 (FLI1). The resulting fusion, [...]

Trends in Biochemical Sciences: E3 Ubiquitin Ligases in Signaling, Disease, and Therapeutics (Olsen)

September 15, 2025

 Pirouz Ebadi 1, Caleb M Stratton 1, Shaun K Olsen 2 Abstract The ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) is a central regulator of protein turnover and signaling, with E3 ubiquitin ligases conferring substrate specificity and chain-type control. Recent advances have revealed new mechanistic classes of E3 ligases and expanded our understanding of their roles in disease, including cancer, neurodegeneration, and immune dysfunction. [...]

Aging Cell: Inhibition of Hippo Signaling Through Ablation of Lats1 and Lats2 Protects Against Cognitive Decline in 5xFAD Mice via Increasing Neuronal Resilience Against Ferroptosis (Zheng)

September 10, 2025

 Robert C. Evans, Nawab John Dar, Liuji Chen, Ren Na, Jason C. O'Connor, Jing Jiang, Siyuan Zheng, Qitao Ran ABSTRACT The Hippo signaling pathway is a key regulator of cell growth and cell survival, and hyperactivation of the Hippo pathway has been implicated in neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington's disease. However, the role of Hippo signaling in Alzheimer's disease (AD) remains unclear. [...]

Biochemistry: The Spliceosomal Peptidyl Prolyl Isomerase Like 1 Interacts with the Low-Complexity Domain of the RNA Binding Protein EWS Modulating Its Phase Separation Behavior (Libich Lab)

August 8, 2025

 George L Parra 1, Erich J Sohn 1, Xiaoping Xu 1, David S Libich 1 Abstract RNA-binding protein EWS, a member of the FET (FUS, EWS, TAF15) family, contributes to mRNA biogenesis through roles in transcription, splicing, and RNA transport. Despite evidence linking EWS to spliceosomal complexes, its interactions with spliceosome-associated cyclophilins remain unclear. Here, we describe the first structural and biochemical [...]

Journal of Applied Physiology: Evaluating the effects of exercise and phellodendron amurense on cardiac function in a prostate cancer mouse model (Aune Lab)

August 4, 2025

 Neha Kumar, Logan R. Davis, Gregory J. Aune Paul Rivas, Addanki P. Kumar, Darpan I. Patel Abstract Cytotoxic treatments pose a significant cardiotoxic risk to men with prostate cancer (PCa). Exercise has been found to prevent cardiotoxicities. Previous work from our group has also identified the chemopreventative effects of phellodendron amurense (PhAm). We therefore aimed [...]

Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers Prevention: Multiancestry Transcriptome-Wide Association Study Identifies Candidate Genes Associated with Hepatoblastoma (Tomlinson)

August 1, 2025

 Tiankai Xie Josey C. Sorenson Logan G. Spector Nathan Pankratz R. Stephanie Huang Eiso Hiyama Jenny N. Poynter Gail E. Tomlinson Carolina Armengol Roland Kappler Michael E. Scheurer Eve Roman Aurora Castellano Michael A. Grotzer David S. Ziegler Saonli Basu Erin L. Marcotte Tianzhong Yang Abstract Background: Hepatoblastoma (HB) is a rare embryonal liver tumor, [...]

Journal of Clinical Investigation: Efficacy and safety of a therapeutic humanized FSH–blocking antibody in obesity and Alzheimer’s disease models (Gupta)

July 30, 2025

 Anusha R. Pallapati,1 Funda Korkmaz,1 Satish Rojekar,1 Steven Sims,1 Anurag Misra,2 Judit Gimenez–Roig,1 Aishwarya Gangadhar,1 Victoria Laurencin,1 Anissa Gumerova,1 Uliana Cheliadinova,1 Farhath Sultana,1 Darya Vasilyeva,1 Liam Cullen,1 Jonathan Schuermann,3 Jazz Munitz,4 Hasni Kannangara,1 Surabhi Parte,1 Georgii Pevnev,1 Guzel Burganova,1 Zehra Tumoglu,1 Ronit Witztum,1 Soleil Wizman,1 Natan Kramskiy,1 Liah Igel,1 Fazilet Sen,1 Anna Ranzenigo,4 Anne Macdonald,1 Susan Hutchison,1 Abraham J.P. Teunissen,4 Heather Burkart,5 Mansi Saxena,1 Yelena Ginzburg,1 Ki Goosens,1 Weibin Zhou,1 Vitaly Ryu,1 Ofer Moldavski,1 Orly Barak,1 Michael Pazianas,1 John Caminis,1 Shalender Bhasin,6 Richard Fitzgerald,7 Se-Min Kim,1 Matthew Quinn,5 Shozeb Haider,8 Susan Appt,5 Tal Frolinger,1 Clifford J. Rosen,9 Daria Lizneva,1 Yogesh K. Gupta,2 Tony Yuen,1 and Mone [...]