TUM-IAS Rudolf Mößbauer Professor Matthias Feige elucidates quality assurance mechanisms within cells

TUM-IAS Rudolf Mößbauer Tenure Track Professor Matthias Feige, member of the TUM-IAS Focus Group Cellular Protein Biochemistry, and an international team of researchers were able to elucidate the mechanisms, which ensure that defect proteins do not leave the cell.

They investigated how chaperones, which are Molecular "folding assistants", identify structurally flawed proteins.

What they discovered was that there existed not only one, but two classes of chaperones in the endoplasmic reticulum, each of which identifies different types of hydrophobic amino acid sequences. Furthermore, the sequences identified by the chaperones of the second class, which are described in this journal article for the first time, form particularly dangerous clumps in the cell. Once they are identified, the proteins possessing them can be eliminated rapidly.

The results of the study were published in the high-ranked journal Molecular Cell (IF 14.018). For more information, please see the official TUM press release.