BioCentury
ARTICLE | Translation in Brief

Identifying the ubiquitinators

How a U.K. team is using mass spectrometry to identify ubiquitinating enzymes and their inhibitors

August 9, 2018 12:38 AM UTC

A team at University of Dundee and Newcastle University has developed a mass spectrometry-based screening platform to identify ubiquitin ligases and compounds that modulate them. The approach uses the uptake of ubiquitin by enzymes rather than chemical or fluorescent probes and could accelerate the screening of therapies that target the ubiquitin pathway.

Dysregulation of the ubiquitination pathway or mutations lead to aberrant protein levels in cells and are associated with several diseases including cancer, neurodegenerative disorders and immunological diseases...