Analysis of Biomolecular Condensates in Stress Response

CD BioSciences is dedicated to the broad functional characterization of biomolecular condensates to develop a range of regulatory targets and approaches to provide new opportunities for drug development and clinical treatment of disease. Here, CD BioSciences offers professional services to analyze the function of biomolecular condensates in response to environmental changes for the development of drug targets.

Introduction

Organisms must maintain internal homeostasis. Different organisms have different tolerances to environmental changes (temperature, pH, osmolality, nutrient deprivation, etc.). Organisms have evolved multiple ways to cope with environmental changes, i.e. stress. When a cell's or organism's environment exceeds its tolerance range, organismal and cellular stress responses are invoked to try to counteract the dysregulation. Studies have shown an interaction between stress and the formation of membraneless organelles (MLOs) through liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS). While some MLOs emerge in the absence of stress, many are formed in response to stress. Characteristics of MLOs appropriate to their contribution to the stress response include reversibility, rapid formation, specificity to stress, and reliance on available macromolecules and their intrinsic properties to facilitate rapid, inexpensive, and reversible formation.

Fig. 1. Illustration of biomolecular compartments formed or rearranged in response to stress in eukaryotic cells. (Fefilova A S, et al., 2022)

Customized Services

Adaptive, rapid and reversible reprogramming of regulatory pathways in response to stimuli is achieved with the help of the formation/disintegration of biomolecular condensates. Our experts are committed to studying MLOs that are re-formed or reconstituted during stress responses in prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. We aim to analyze their function and provide cells with a strategy to selectively isolate and condense macromolecules for storage and protection or to promote specific biochemical reactions.

CD BioSciences offers professional services for the analysis of biomolecular condensates in the cytoplasm and nucleus in response to stress.

• Analysis of stress-induced MLOs
  We can analyze stress-induced MLOs, mainly stress granules and processing bodies, in yeast, fungi and bacteria, invertebrate and vertebrate cells, and even in plants.
• Analysis of constitutive MLOs responding to stress
  In addition to analyzing MLOs formed in response to stress, we can analyze some constitutive, but stress-responsive MLOs, such as paraspeckles and cajal bodies.
• Regulation of MLO reorganization in response to stress
  We modulate the properties of MLOs under stress by altering physical and biological factors, allowing for rapid and reversible responses to external stimuli. Factors include post-translational modifications, changes in scaffold protein concentrations, interactions with partners, molecular chaperones and autophagosome degradation, etc. In addition, our researchers have tried to use bioinformatics tools to predict proteins that form stress-inducible particles.

We focus on studying MLOs in stress-sensitive organisms. By combining comparative physiological approaches with traditional cellular and molecular biology techniques to study cellular stress responses, we accelerate your understanding of the unique ways in which organisms maintain endostasis and develop new therapies. If you have any special requirements for our services, please feel free to contact us. We are looking forward to working together with your attractive projects.