Thinon Team Chemical Biology of membrane proteins

Our research is based on a multidisciplinary approach, involving chemical and peptide synthesis, proteomics, cell biology, and biochemistry.

The study of small membrane proteins can often be challenging. Notably, it can be difficult to tag these proteins with a fluorophore in cellulo without perturbing the proteins localization and function, or to extract and purify them from membranes, without disturbing their structure or interactions with other proteins, for structure determination or for mass spectrometry interaction proteomics. We first aim to develop new methods to tag proteins at the endogenous level (no overexpression) for immunofluorescence and interaction proteomics studies.

Membrane proteins can also be post-translationally modified by lipids (S-palmitoylation), but the precise function of these modifications is not always understood and proteomics methods to quantify them are noticeably lacking. We particularly aim to characterize small transmembrane proteins which are S-palmitoylated and involved in viral infections. These studies will help us to understand if these proteins could be new antiviral drug targets.