Protein biogenesis and quantity control at the ribosome

Monday, 6 July 2026, 1pm to 2pm

The accurate and timely production of functional proteins is essential for cellular homeostasis. Dysregulation of protein synthesis is implicated in numerous human diseases, including cancer and neurological disorders. To maintain proteome integrity, cells have evolved diverse mechanisms that control both the quality and quantity of proteins produced from the transcriptome. Among these, co-translational surveillance of nascent polypeptide chains (NCs) at the ribosome represents the earliest opportunity for cells to facilitate proper protein folding and enforce quality control. However, many co-translational pathways and their associated factors remain poorly understood, due in part to the transient nature of these interactions and the lack of systematic approaches to study them. To address this challenge, our lab developed nascent chain interactor profiling (NCIP), a method that enables proteome-wide identification of transient NC-interacting proteins during translation. In this talk, I will present our characterization of two co-translational factors discovered using NCIP: an E3 ubiquitin ligase required for the clearance of misfolded nascent chains at the ribosome, and a previously uncharacterized co-translational chaperone that plays a key role in the biogenesis of α-synuclein, a pathogenic protein implicated in Parkinson’s disease.

Speaker(s): Assistant Professor Zhewang Lin (Department of Biological Sciences at the National University of Singapore.)

Series: Microbiology and Systems Biology Seminar

Venue: Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin Building - DCHB 20-138 Seminar Room 2 - DCHB 20-138 Seminar Room 2 Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin Building off South Parks Road Oxford Oxfordshire OX1 3QU United Kingdom

Department: Biochemistry (Department)

Organiser: Haoxi Wu

Host: Dr Haoxi Wu