LIFE SCIENCES

Each and every protein in a living organism is tightly regulated by input signals to allow the cell to respond to its environment. How can such a signal switch a protein on or off? Using high-performance computer simulations and novel ways of analysing forces within proteins, a team of scientists of the Molecular Biomechanics Group at the Heidelberg Institute of Theoretical Studies (HITS) under leadership of Dr. Frauke Gräter analysed how the heat shock protein Hsp90, a helper protein vital to any cell in any organism, is switched by the binding of a small molecule. Within the very complex structure of this protein-molecular machine, the scientists could identify a network of forces spanning from the binding site of the small molecule to a hinge region. The computed network helps to understand the way such a helper protein works and might lead to new avenues for the design of anti-cancer agents targeted to Hsp90.