BBB Seminar: Carol MacKintosh
The digital logic of 14-3-3 proteins in growth factor and insulin signaling
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Carol MacKintosh, MRC Protein Phosphorylation Unit, College of Life Sciences, University of Dundee, UK
14-3-3s dock onto specific phosphorylated serine and threonine residues in hundreds of proteins, offering fantastic (though challenging) opportunities to gain regulatory insights into diverse areas of biology relevant to health and disease. To tackle this challenge, we have devised differential proteomics approaches to define which subset of proteins is captured by 14-3-3s at any given time in response to hormones and other stimuli. Using these methods we have identified many novel downstream targets of the PI 3-kinase/PKB pathway, which is activated by insulin and growth factors. These studies are also revealing the 'digital logic' of 14-3-3s, indicating how the dimeric nature of 14-3-3s enables them to operate as mechanical devices and signaling integrators, and may even have influenced the evolution of their target proteins.
Host: Stein Ove Døskeland, Department of Biomedicine