Ligand-induced changes in cell surface receptors result in physiological responses, which constitute the biological activity of various ligands such as proteins, peptides, pharmaceutical drugs, toxins or whole pathogens. However, traditional approaches for the ligand-based identification of corresponding receptors are usually limited to non-transient, high affinity interactions and highly artificial experimental set-ups. Therefore, many signaling molecules remain orphan ligands without a known primary molecular target – invaluable information in understanding the respective mechanisms of signal transduction, drug action or disease. In the context of the lecture I will present a summary of our recent clinical research to understand the surfaceome as a cellular information gateway and a recently developed breakthrough technology which enables now the unbiased detection of ligand-receptor interactions on living cells.
Bernd Wollscheid is a research group leader and head of the NCCR Neuro Center for Proteomics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich, Switzerland. After studying chemistry in Freiburg and Boston he obtained his PhD in molecular immunology from the Max-Planck Institute for Immunobiology. His postdoctoral research took him to the Institute of Systems Biology in Seattle where he developed and applied chemoproteomic technologies to elucidate cell surface protein biology. Now at the Institute for Molecular Systems Biology at ETH Zurich he developed a research program focusing on a systems biology understanding of the cell surface as a cellular information gateway and on the identification of cell surface glycoproteins as diagnostic and therapeutic clinical targets.
Moderation: Professor Dr. Uwe Völker