Determining the role of yeast rhomboid-2 in membrane trafficking

菱形蛋白是高度保守的蛋白家族。事实上，地球上几乎所有的生物体内都有一种菱形蛋白。菱形体是蛋白酶，也就是说它们可以把其他蛋白质切成更小的片段。这是细胞用来改变其生物特性的强大工具。了解蛋白酶在健康和疾病中的作用是至关重要的，因为蛋白酶是非常好的药物靶标，这要归功于可以设计小分子来控制它们的活性。许多疾病都是由蛋白酶切断它们不应该切断的东西引起的，所以用一种抑制它们活动的药物来阻止它们是许多新疗法的基础。我们打算弄清楚一类菱形蛋白酶的作用。这类菱形体似乎起着控制细胞内部组织的作用。为了确定它的功能，我们将使用非常强大的模式生物酵母，也就是制作面包的酵母。我们期望确定这个菱形蛋白酶家族的功能将揭示由细胞内网络破坏引起的大量疾病背后的分子机制。

Rhomboids are the most highly conserved protein family.  Indeed, almost every organism on Earth has a rhomboid protein inside it.  Rhomboids are proteases, that is they can cut other proteins into smaller pieces.  This is a powerful tool the cell uses to alter its biology.  Understanding the role of proteases in health and disease is critical, as proteases make extremely good drug targets, thanks to the fact that small molecules can be designed to control their activity.  Many diseases are caused by proteases cutting things they shouldn't, so stopping them with a drug that inhibits their activity is the basis for many novel therapeutics.  We are proposing to figure out what one class of rhomboid proteases do.  This class of rhomboids appear to act in controlling the organization of the inside of the cell.  In order to determine its function, we will use the very powerful model organism yeast, the same yeast that makes our bread.  We expect that determining the function of this family of Rhomboid proteases will uncover molecular mechanisms behind the plethera of diseases that are caused by disruption of the intracellular networks.