Redox Interactions

In December, the Brussels Center for Redox Biology organises their yearly Fall Symposium. To increase our visibility and critical mass, we invite keynote speakers from all over the world, but also PhD-students, and early career researchers are encouraged to present their work. The post-doctoral researchers are actively participating in the organisation of these symposia to increase their managerial skills.

Redox regulation and signaling is an area of research, which is continuously expanding. Over the last few years it became obvious that many cellular functions are controlled by redox processes, in particular by the formation of disulfides in proteins or by the addition or removal of glutathione to surface-exposed cysteine residues. Local changes in the redox environment and a large number of regulating enzymes mediate a spatio-temporal modulation of the activities in different compartments of the cell. In this respect, oxidation serves as a post-translational modification system that operates similarly to protein phosphorylation or acetylation but uses local redox changes. Since recently modern methods became available to follow redox local changes (e.g. by fluorescent sensor proteins) or modifications of proteins (e.g. by different mass spec applications), an amazing insight into cellular redox control became apparent. In these meetings, internationally leading experts from very different fields, but with a shared interest in redox biology gather together in Spain.

An unforgettable scientific cruise from Moscow to St. Petersburg