Publications

Biochemical and structural characterization of chlorite dismutase enzyme from Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Dimitrios V Nokas et al.

FEBS J. 2025 Jun 3. doi: 10.1111/febs.70151. Online ahead of print.

Industrialization and urbanization have caused serious contamination of water bodies, and the removal of chemical contaminants has become a major challenge. Chlorite is a harmful anthropogenic compound with a serious environmental impact and has been detected in groundwater, drinking water, and soil. Enzymes are considered sustainable tools for bioremediation, with chlorite dismutase (Cld) being a notable example. This enzyme has unique properties owing to the rare dioxygen bond formation that...

A guide to heat shock factors as multifunctional transcriptional regulators

Hendrik S E Hästbacka et al.

FEBS J. 2025 Jun 2. doi: 10.1111/febs.70139. Online ahead of print.

The heat shock factors (HSFs) form a family of transcription factors, which are evolutionarily conserved in eukaryotes. They are best known as transcriptional regulators of molecular chaperone genes, including those encoding heat shock proteins, in response to heat shock and other protein-damaging stresses. Since the discovery of the first HSF and its eponymous role in the heat shock response four decades ago, the currently known HSFs in vertebrates, that is, HSF1-5, HSFX, and HSFY, have been...

Proliferation of Human Cervical Cancer Cells Responds to Surface Properties of Bicomponent Polymer Coatings

Emil Rosqvist et al.

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2025 May 9;15(10):716. doi: 10.3390/nano15100716.

The proliferation of human cervical cancer (Hela) cells was investigated on a series of nanostructured polymer latex surfaces. The physico-chemical properties of the surfaces, composed of mixtures of polystyrene and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene dispersions, were precisely controlled in the nanoscale range by adjusting the mixing ratio of the components and thermal treatment. In addition, the proliferation response of HeLa cells was compared to that of human dermal fibroblast (HDF) cells. A...

Dynamic regulation of integrin β1 phosphorylation supports invasion of breast cancer cells

James R W Conway et al.

Nat Cell Biol. 2025 May 26. doi: 10.1038/s41556-025-01663-4. Online ahead of print.

Integrins provide an essential bridge between cancer cells and the extracellular matrix, playing a central role in every stage of disease progression. Despite the recognized importance of integrin phosphorylation in several biological processes, the regulatory mechanisms and their relevance remained elusive. Here we engineer a fluorescence resonance energy transfer biosensor for integrin β1 phosphorylation, screening 96 protein tyrosine phosphatases and identifying Shp2 and PTP-PEST as negative...

Mass spectrometric insights into the protein composition of human cutaneous neurofibromas: comparison of neurofibromas with the overlying skin

Roope A Kallionpää et al.

Br J Cancer. 2025 May 20. doi: 10.1038/s41416-025-03055-9. Online ahead of print.

CONCLUSION: The cNFs are relatively quiescent, consistent with their benign nature and limited growth potential. The development of pharmacological therapy for cNFs requires overcoming the high similarity between cNFs and the overlying skin. The present dataset can serve as a resource for future research on cNFs.

High-resolution live imaging of tardigrade response to anoxia

Anna-Mari Haapanen-Saaristo et al.

Micron. 2025 May 9;196-197:103847. doi: 10.1016/j.micron.2025.103847. Online ahead of print.

Tardigrades are well-known for their ability to tolerate extreme environmental conditions such as heat, drought and lack of oxygen by undergoing cryptobiosis. The molecular responses to stress have been studied in detail, but the physiological and morphogenetic changes during cryptobiosis are less understood. We developed new live high-resolution fluorescence microscopy protocols to visualize the tardigrade response to lack of oxygen - anoxybiosis. High-resolution time-lapse imaging enabled...