Hot Papers
Sung-Hou Kim (University of California and Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley): "This paper provides three-dimensional structural information essential for (1) understanding the molecular switching mechanism for signal transduction in Ras and G proteins and (2) designing modulators of the biological functions of ras, a common oncogene in human tumors.
"Extracellular signals are transduced through cell membranes and trigger a cascade of chemical reactions inside the cell, resulting in responses such as cell growth and differentiation. G proteins often play the role of initial molecular switch in this cascade. The switch is `on' when guanosine triphosphate (GTP) is bound to the G proteins, and `off' when guanosine diphosphate (GDP) is bound. Ras protein is one of the simplest G proteins, and our studies revealed the structural basis for understanding how this molecular switch works. We were delighted and surprised when we discovered that the structural difference of the protein in ...
