01.01.2024
Dr Nji (CEO and Co-Founder of BioStruct-Africa) and Scientists from the Executive Committee of the African Light Source Foundation discuss work on The African Light Source: history, context and future. Read the full paper in: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38142406/
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19.10.2022
Dr Daouda Traore (Co-Founder of BioStruct-Africa) and Scientists from the Executive Committee of the African Light Source Foundation discuss work towards building an advanced light source in Africa, and what remains to be done. Read the full paper in:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s42254-022-00534-3
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28.09.2022
Dr Emmanuel Nji (CEO and Co-Founder of BioStruct-Africa) and researchers in Finland published: "Introduction of a More Glutaredoxin-like Active Site to PDI Results in Competition between Protein Substrate and Glutathione Binding"
Read the full paper in:
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3921/11/10/1920/htm
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16.08.2022
BioStruct-Africa has been empowering Africa-based scientists through structural biology knowledge transfer and mentoring.
Read the full story in:
https://www.biologists.com/stories/promoting-structural-biology-research-in-africa/
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16.06.2022
Utilizing a combination of cryo-EM and transport assays, our CEO (Dr. Emmanuel Nji) and researchers in France elucidate the molecular mechanisms important to brain and placenta development and function. Read the full paper at:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41594-022-00786-8
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27.10.2021
The CEO of BioStruct-Africa (Dr. Emmanuel Nji) and researchers from Stockholm University, Sweden, developed a GFP thermal shift assay for screening ligand and lipid interactions to solute carrier (SLC) transporters. This protocol should prove useful in facilitating the structural and functional studies of this important class of drug targets (SLC transporters).
This protocol is mainly based on:
Nji, E. et al. Nat. Commun. 9, 4253 (2018): https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-06702-3
Nji, E. et al. Nat. Struct. Mol. Biol. 26, 415–423 (2019): https://doi.org/10.1038/s41594-019-0225-y
Winkelmann, I. et al. EMBO J. 39, 4541–4559 (2020): https://doi.org/10.15252/embj.2020105908
Read the full protocol in Nature Protocol.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41596-021-00619-w
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23.06.2021
Dr Calvin Tiengwe presents novel aspects of iron homeostasis in pathogenic bloodstream form Trypanosoma brucei.
Read the full paper published in PLOS PATHOGENS:
hhttps://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article/authors?id=10.1371/journal.ppat.1009696
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9.03.2021
BioStruct-Africa and researchers from Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, determined three crystal structures of human MGST2: holoenzyme with GSH, apoenzyme, and a complex with the substrate analog/inhibitor glutathione sulfonic acid (GSO3−), which together with biochemical and computational evidence reveal the molecular basis for one-third the sites reactivity of MGST2 catalytic mechanism.
Read the full paper published in Nature Communications:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-21924-8#article-info
13.02.2021
BioStruct-Africa provided an appraisal of the high prevalence of antibiotic resistance by commensal Escherichia coli in community settings. Our findings will have important ramifications for public health policy design to contain the spread of antibiotic resistance in community settings.
Read the full paper published in Scientific Reports:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-82693-4
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30.09.2020
A timely research by BioStruct-Africa to raise awareness of the extent of antibiotic resistance crises in community settings and calls for urgent action to address this global health crisis, especially in the current situation of the emergence of pandemics, like the severe acute respiratory coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID 19) that has led to a surge in the use of antimicrobial drugs within the community through self-medication and chemoprophylaxis.
Read the full paper published in the Journal of Global Health Action:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/16549716.2020.1815272
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29.01.2020
Malaria is a life-threatening disease that leads to the death of over 400,000 people annually and affects an estimated 229 million people worldwide. Approximately 3 billion USD is spent annually on malaria control. Human antibodies generated against the parasites do not provide sterilising immunity. Artemisinin-based combination therapies are recommended by the WHO, but the therapeutic benefits are threatened by drug-resistance. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop novel treatments. Here we present "The molecular basis for sugar import in malaria parasites". This study should prove useful in identifying novel inhibitors and optimising existing inhibitors as a potential treatment against malaria.
Read the full paper published in NATURE:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-1963-z
or
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09.10. 2019
BioStruct-Africa has been empowering Africa-based scientists through structural biology knowledge transfer and mentoring.
Read the full article :
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02.06.2019
Dr. Emmanuel Nji and others present: "Crystal structures of a Zea mays CMP-sialic acid transporter (CST) apo and in complex with CMP and functional assays of corn and human CSTs suggest how CMP-sialic acid is translocated across Golgi membranes".
Read the full article in: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41594-019-0225-y
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27.02.2019
Mama Ndi and others revealed: 1. Two forms of mitochondrial protein Kgd4 cannot be explained by alternative splicing, 2. Kgd4L derives from alternative initiation at an upstream UUG codon, 3. Both variants are imported into mitochondria and support assembly of KGDH and 4. Sequence context surrounding codons dictates their use as alternative start sites.
Read the full article in:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022283619301007?via%3Dihub
16.01.2019
Dr. Emmanuel Nji and others revealed, the ammonium transporter AmtB and the PII signal transduction protein GlnZ are required to inhibit DraG in Azospirillum brasilense.
Read the full article in:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30633437
01.10.2018
Membrane bilayers are made up of a myriad of different lipids that affect membrane proteins, but identifying those specific lipid requirements remains a challenge. Here Dr. Emmanuel Nji (CEO and Co-Founder of Biostruct-Africa) and others present an engineered thermal-shift screen which reveals specific lipid preferences of eukaryotic and prokaryotic membrane proteins.
Stockholm University media release:
Read the full article in :
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-06702-3
13.09.2018
"Conjugative transfer of antibiotic resistance plasmid pCW3 in Clostridium perfringens is mediated by the tcp locus. Here, Dr. Traore (Co-founder of Biostruct-Africa) and others identify a wHTH-type protein, TcpK, that is essential for efficient plasmid transfer and interacts with the plasmid oriT region in an unique manner."
Monash University, Australia media release:
https://www.monash.edu/discovery-institute/news-and-events/news/how-bacteria-play-pass-the-parcel-and-help-each-other-evade-antibiotics
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Read the full paper in : https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-06096-2