Dexamethasone, a corticosteroid that saves lives but should not be taken without medical indication
18 June, 2020
Blood group A increases the risk of coronavirus and 0 reduces it
22 June, 2020
Javier García Nafría, Ramón y Cajal researcher of excellence at the BIFI, has collaborated in the discovery to visualize how proteins on the surface of cells work at a molecular level.
Javier García Nafría, Ramón y Cajal researcher of excellence at the Institute of Biocomputing and Physics of Complex Systems (BIFI) of the University of Zaragoza, has collaborated on the discovery to visualize how proteins work at the molecular level, with the ultimate goal of creating Improved drugs, without side effects.
The scientific journal 'Nature' published this Wednesday the results obtained thanks to the use of the high-resolution cryo-electron microscopy technique, whose advances over the last 6 years have led to the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2017, and recently installed in the BIFI and the Unizar Advanced Microscopy Laboratory (LMA).
This procedure allows obtaining three-dimensional images of proteins with a high therapeutic value, previously practically unattainable using the available systems. The results, collected in the article 'Molecular basis of β-arrestin coupling to formoterol-bound β1-adrenoceptor', have been obtained from a study on an asthma drug, applying this technique developed in part at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (Cambridge), where Javier García Nafría has worked for eight years.
This research represents a decisive step to understand at a molecular level how certain drugs activate one cell signaling pathway preferentially over another, with the ultimate goal of being able to create improved drugs.
The biochemist Javier García Nafría is one of the 14 Ramón y Cajal researchers currently active at the University of Zaragoza, within one of the main programs of excellence in Spain to retain and attract both national and international talent.
Since arriving at BIFI at the end of 2019, García Nafra has directed the research line 'Signal transduction and therapies in membrane proteins'. Together with his group, he studies how cell surface proteins detect stimuli and transmit information to the cell interior, as well as the modulation of these proteins by drugs. The group uses a novel technique, high-resolution cryo-electron microscopy, absent until now in Aragon, in which state-of-the-art microscopes and high-performance computing are used to visualize how proteins function at the molecular level.
Its establishment at the BIFI has been key since the institute has state-of-the-art biophysical equipment, a computational cluster and a multidisciplinary environment. In addition, the Advanced Microscopy Laboratory (LMA) of Aragón is also used, of which Javier García Nafra is a member.
