Volume 4 Issue 9, September 2008

Chemical biology continues to grow and blur the theoretical and empirical boundaries between chemistry and biology. Federal funding agencies, including the US National Science Foundation, will be essential to support the development of interdisciplinary research fields.

Funding support for chemical biology is essential for its growth around the world. A new funding initiative from the National Natural Science Foundation of China provides a model of a targeted funding program in the area of signal transduction.

An emerging generation of scientists trained at the interface of chemistry and biology is providing new tools and insights into the workings of biological systems. Private foundations represent an important funding option for scientists at this interface.

European Research Area (ERA)-Chemistry is a network of funding agencies that supports international collaborative approaches to chemical research and facilitates the flow of ideas from scientists to funding institutions.

Alkaloids, which include caffeine and morphine, are a large class of pharmacologically active plant compounds that are often difficult to chemically synthesize. Incorporation of benzylisoquinoline alkaloid pathways in yeast will facilitate the production of natural and non-natural alkaloids.

N-terminal modification is a mechanism for regulation of protein activity, localization and degradation. A proteomic approach using β-lactone activity-based probes has identified a cysteine protease with N-terminal transpeptidase activity.

Chemists have established numerous methods for performing protein conjugations, but metathesis catalysts have largely remained absent from this toolkit. Evidence that proteins bearing allylsulfides undergo cross-metathesis with chosen alkenes in aqueous conditions will allow chemists to harness the power of metathesis catalysts for modifying biomolecules and other water-soluble compounds.

Chemical inhibitors of the proteasome have received substantial attention owing to the success of bortezomib in the treatment of multiple myeloma. A recent whole-cell screen identified the proteasome inhibitor argyrin A and suggests a new role for p27^Kip-1 in regulating apoptosis.

The signal recognition particle (SRP), a ribonucleoprotein complex that is conserved across all organisms, is essential for cotranslational insertion of proteins into membranes. A three-dimensional structure of cpSRP43 provides insights into how plants have adapted the SRP for post-translational targeting of membrane proteins.