Turning genes on: distance between a gene and

Its Regulatory Region Matters

When and where a gene is transcribed into an RNA molecule often depends on the gene’s physical interactions with distal regulatory regions called enhancers. Researchers in the group of Luca Giorgetti developed a novel experimental approach and combined it with mathematical models to investigate how such interactions control transcription. They found that the expression levels of a gene depend on the interaction frequencies with its enhancer. The findings shed light onto the role of chromosome structure in long-range transcriptional regulation.

Nicolas Thomä receives Otto Naegeli Prize

Nicolas Thomä received the Otto Naegeli Prize for Medical Research, one of the most prestigious scientific awards in Switzerland, for his groundbreaking work on targeted protein degradation, contributing to advancing drug design. Thomä has shown how some small molecules function as “molecular glues”, inducing interactions between a target protein and an enzyme that tags proteins for degradation. Such molecular glues have the potential to target proteins that were previously thought to be undruggable. The Otto Naegeli Prize Award Ceremony was organized by the FMI and took place on June 14 at the Biozentrum in Basel.