{"491211":{"#nid":"491211","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Matt Torres Awarded $1.2M Grant from the National Institutes of Health for Investigating Novel Protein Mechanism Involved in Hormone Signaling","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe Torres lab has been awarded a four year, $1.2 million grant by the National Institutes of General Medical Sciences to investigate a newly discovered regulatory mechanism that controls \u003Cem\u003EG protein signaling\u003C\/em\u003E, a process essential for the transduction of extracellular signals (such as hormones, neurotransmitters, and photons of light), and the target of most pharmaceutical drugs.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESpawned by their development and application of a custom bioinformatics software tool (called SAPH-ire) \u003Csup\u003E1\u003C\/sup\u003E, the Torres lab discovered a new way in which G protein signaling is regulated by phosphorylation \u2013 an enzyme-driven chemical modification of specific amino acid side chains found in most proteins. The newly discovered \u003Cem\u003Ephospho\u003C\/em\u003E-\u003Cem\u003Eregulatory element\u003C\/em\u003E, like G proteins themselves, is well conserved throughout eukaryotes, which will enable Torres and his lab to investigate how the element functions across diverse organisms such as budding yeast and humans. The National Institutes of Health grant will also provide funding to determine the biochemical mechanism of G protein phosphorylation \u2013 including the enzymes that activate the regulatory element in coordination with other cellular processes including cell division and stress. Through these and other approaches, Torres hopes to determine whether his lab has discovered a protein mechanism that is not only fundamental to the process of G protein signaling in all eukaryotes, but also a possible alternative target for pharmaceutical drug therapies.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDewhurst, H. M., Choudhury, S. \u0026amp; Torres, M. P. Structural Analysis of PTM Hotspots (SAPH-ire)--A Quantitative Informatics Method Enabling the Discovery of Novel Regulatory Elements in Protein Families. \u003Cem\u003EMol. Cell. Proteomics\u003C\/em\u003E \u003Cstrong\u003E14,\u003C\/strong\u003E 2285\u201397 (2015).\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe Torres lab has been awarded a four year, $1.2 million grant by the National Institutes of General Medical Sciences to investigate a newly discovered regulatory mechanism that controls \u003Cem\u003EG protein signaling\u003C\/em\u003E, a process essential for the transduction of extracellular signals (such as hormones, neurotransmitters, and photons of light), and the target of most pharmaceutical drugs.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"The Torres lab has been awarded a four year, $1.2 million grant by the National Institutes of General Medical Sciences"}],"uid":"27245","created_gmt":"2016-01-27 08:09:22","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:20:31","author":"Troy Hilley","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2016-01-27T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2016-01-27T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"491201":{"id":"491201","type":"image","title":"Matthew Torres","body":null,"created":"1454009867","gmt_created":"2016-01-28 19:37:47","changed":"1475895248","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:54:08","alt":"Matthew Torres","file":{"fid":"204454","name":"mtorres.jpeg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/mtorres_0.jpeg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/mtorres_0.jpeg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":42710,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/mtorres_0.jpeg?itok=hpZxvEpD"}}},"media_ids":["491201"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.biology.gatech.edu\/","title":"School of Biology"},{"url":"http:\/\/torreslab.biology.gatech.edu\/","title":"Torres Lab"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.biology.gatech.edu\/people\/matthew-torres","title":"Matthew Torres"}],"groups":[{"id":"1275","name":"School of Biological Sciences"}],"categories":[{"id":"146","name":"Life Sciences and Biology"}],"keywords":[{"id":"99131","name":"Matthew Torres"},{"id":"2076","name":"NIH"},{"id":"171604","name":"Torres"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}