Anežka Tichá leaves the group after seven great years as a PhD student and postdoc. Anežka was absolutely key for the development of the ketoamide inhibitors of rhomboid proteases. We all greatly enjoyed having her as a colleague and friend. You will be sorely missed in the lab. Others will enjoy your presence, at Janssen. :)

Keep in touch and best of luck!

We have contributed to a collaborative paper with the Adrain, Domingos and Christianson groups that identifies new clients of the EMC complex and reveals an EMC dependent biogenesis factor of rhodopsin. Just published early view in the EMBO Reports. What a pleasurable collaboration!

We have contributed to a collaborative paper with the Freeman lab that reveals the role of the rhomboid intramembrane protease RHBDL2 in calcium signalling and conformational quality control in T-cells. Just published in Molecular Cell.

There is more from us on RHBDL2 in the pipeline... Watch this space!

Check out how faulty proteins are extracted across the membranes of cellular organelles to be degraded by the proteasome in the cytosol. Summarised in a hot-off-the-press review by Kvido Strisovsky and Marius Lemberg in Molecular Cell.

https://www.cell.com/molecular-cell/fulltext/S1097-2765(21)00361-0?rss=yes&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Mgr. Hana Dvořáková has worked in parasitology at Charles University, and now joins our group at IOCB as a research assistant. Welcome!

Our collaboration with the former Urban laboratory over the last few years has yielded this article in Cell Chemical Biology, which shows that pharmacological targetting of Plasmodium falciparum rhomboid proteases by ketoamides is feasible. Inhibition of PfROM4 blocks the entry of the parasite into the host cells and cures the culture, hence establishing Plasmodium rhomboids as new drug targets.

https://www.cell.com/cell-chemical-biology/fulltext/S2451-9456(20)30333-0

Two back to back papers in collaboration with Thierry Doan in Marseille and Chris Tang in Oxford, showing that bacterial rhomboid proteases are key for membrane protein quality control in bacteria, both as proteases and pseudoproteases, which is reminiscent of ERAD and Derlins in eukaryotes.

Began J, Cordier B, Brezinova J, Delisle J, Hexnerova R, Srb P, Rampirova P, Kozisek M, Baudet M, Coute Y et al (2020) Rhomboid intramembrane protease YqgP licenses bacterial membrane protein quality control as adaptor of FtsH AAA protease. EMBO J 39: e102935

Liu G, Beaton SE, Grieve AG, Evans R, Rogers M, Strisovsky K, Armstrong FA, Freeman M, Exley RM, Tang CM (2020) Bacterial rhomboid proteases mediate quality control of orphan membrane proteins. EMBO J 39: e102922

And an interesting News and Views piece summarising both papers and giving a broad persective written by Knopf and Lemberg:

Knopf JD, Lemberg MK (2020) Derlins with scissors: primordial ERAD in bacteria. EMBO J 39: e105012

It was a great pleasure to work with all the collaborators including Oliver Hoeller for the cover art!

Particular congratulations to all first authors!