Coordinator: José María Valpuesta Moralejo

Group of "Structure and function of molecular chaperones"  

Departamento de Estructura de Macromoléculas

Centro Nacional de Biotecnología

Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas

C/ Darwin, 3

Campus de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid

28049 Madrid, España

Telf.: +34 915854690

Fax: +34 915854506

e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Grupo de "Structure and function of molecular chaperones":

Our group has been investigating during the last years in the structural determination of large macromolecular complexes, mainly molecular chaperones, which are proteins involved in the folding and degradation of proteins. In the last years, it has been discovered that these systems not only help to fold other proteins, but also, under specific conditions, they can actively degradate proteins. Both processes occur by the transitory formation of complexes within the chaperones and co-chaperones. Our objective is the structural characterization of come of these complexes, with the aim of understanding the involved structural mechanisms. Therefore, as main tools, we use electronic microscopy and imaging processing techniques, and combine the resulting information with the available atomic structures of the chaperones and co-chaperones.

Relevant publications in the last five years:

- L.A. Campos, R. Sharma, S. Alvira, F.M. Ruiz, B. Ibarra-Molero, M. Sadqi, C. Alfonso, G. Rivas, J.M. Sanchez-Ruiz, A. Romero, J.M. Valpuesta, V. Muñoz; “Engineering Protein Assemblies with Allosteric Control via Monomer Fold-Switching”; Nature Communications 2019, 10, 5703.

- J. Cuéllar, W. G. Ludlam, N.C. Tensmeyer, T. Aoba, M. Dhavale, T. Bueno, C. Santiago, R.L. Plimpton, A. Makaju, S. Franklin, B.M. Willardson, J.M. Valpuesta; “Structural and functional analysis of the role of the chaperonin CCT in mTOR complex assembly”; Nature Communications 2019, 10, 2865.

- P. Esteve, J. Rueda-Carrasco, M. Inés Mateo, M.J. Martin-Bermejo, J. Draffin, G. Pereyra, A. Sandonís, I. Crespo, I. Moreno, E. Aso, P. Garcia-Esparcia, E. Gomez-Tortosa, A. Rabano, J. Fortea, D. Alcolea, A. Lleo, M.T. Heneka, JM. Valpuesta, JA. Esteban, I. Ferrer, M. Dominguez, P. Bovolenta; “Elevated levels of Secreted-Frizzled-Related-Protein 1 contribute to Alzheimer’s disease pathogenesis”; Nature Neuroscience 2019, 22, 1258.

- Sousa R, Liao HS, Cuéllar J, Jin S, Valpuesta JM, Jin AJ, Lafer EM; “Clathrin-coat disassembly illuminates the mechanisms of Hsp70 force generation”; Nature Structure Molecular Biology 2016, 23, 821.

- M. Ukleja, J. Cuellar, A. Siwaszek, J.M. Kasprzak, M. Czarnocki-Cieciura, J. Bujnicki, A. Dziembowski, J.M. Valpuesta; “The architecture of the CCR4-NOT complex from Schizosaccharomyces pombe provides a mechanistic insight into this multifunctional macromolecular assembly”; Nature Communications 2016, 7, 10433.