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Ten years ago, Einstein@Home published its first astronomical discovery. The radio pulsar J2007+2722 was found in July 2010 with our radio pulsar search, analyzing data from the Arecibo Radio Telescope. The discovery appeared in print on 10 September 2010. A more detailed article about the discovery was published later.

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The extreme dynamic behavior of intrinsically disordered proteins hinders the development of drug-like compounds capable of modulating them. There are several examples of small molecules that specifically interact with disordered peptides. However, their mechanisms of action are still not well understood. Here, we use extensive molecular dynamics simulations combined with adaptive sampling algorithms to perform free ligand binding studies in the context of intrinsically disordered proteins. We tested this approach in the system composed by the D2 sub-domain of the disordered protein p27 and the small molecule SJ403. The results show several protein–ligand bound states characterized by the establishment of a loosely oriented interaction mediated by a limited number of contacts between the ligand and critical residues of p27. Finally, protein conformations in the bound state are likely to be explored by the isolated protein too, therefore supporting a model where the addition of the small molecule restricts the available conformational space.

In light of the cancelation of the 2020 BOINC Workshop in Marburg, Germany, there will be a virtual celebration of BOINC projects, development, and community. As with all things BOINC, your help -- the BOINC community -- is needed to produce the event. Learn more below and at http://www.boincworkshop.org/.

Protein-protein interactions are the basis of many important physiological processes, and are currently promising, yet difficult, targets for drug discovery. In this context, inhibitors of apoptosis (IAPs)-mediated interactions are pivotal for cancer cell survival; the interaction of the BIR1 domain of cIAP2 with TRAF2 was shown to lead the recruitment of cIAPs to the TNF-receptor, promoting the activation of NF-κB survival pathway. In this work, using a combined in silico-in vitro approach we identified a drug-like molecule, NF023, able to disrupt cIAP2 interaction with TRAF2. We demonstrated in vitro its ability to interfere with the assembly of the cIAP2-BIR1/TRAF2 complex and performed a thorough characterization of the compound’s mode of action through 248 parallel unbiased molecular dynamics simulations of 300 ns (totaling almost 75 µs of all-atom sampling), which identified multiple binding modes to the BIR1 domain of cIAP2 via clustering and ensemble docking. NF023 is, thus, a promising protein-protein interaction disruptor, representing a starting point to develop modulators of NF-κB-mediated cell survival in cancer. This study represents a model-procedure that shows the use of large-scale molecular dynamics methods to typify promiscuous interactors.

The exploration of intrinsically disordered proteins in isolation is a crucial step to understand their complex dynamical behavior. In particular, the emergence of partially ordered states has not been explored in depth. The experimental characterization of such partially ordered states remains elusive due to their transient nature. Molecular dynamics mitigates this limitation thanks to its capability to explore biologically relevant timescales while retaining atomistic resolution. Here, millisecond unbiased molecular dynamics simulations were performed in the exemplar N-terminal region of p53. In combination with state-of-the-art Markov state models, simulations revealed the existence of several partially ordered states accounting for ∼ 40% of the equilibrium population. Some of the most relevant states feature helical conformations similar to the bound structure of p53 to Mdm2, as well as novel