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Unique event - four Nobel laureates at 11th ISABS Conference in Split

Third day of Conference was marked by lectures held by four Nobel laureates.

On Wednesday, June 19, 2019, the third day of the 11th ISABS Conference on Forensic and Anthropological Genetics and Mayo Clinic Lectures in Individualized Medicine (www.isabs.hr) organized by the International Society for Applied Biology (ISABS) marked lectures Four Nobel Prize winners: Avram Hershko from the Technion Institute, the Nobel Prize winner for Chemistry 2004, Robert Huber from the Max-Planck Institute, the Nobel Prize for Chemistry 1988, Paul Modrich from Duke University, the Nobel Prize for Chemistry Award for 2015. and Ada Yonath of the Weizmann Institute, the Nobel Prize winner for Chemistry 2009

Ada Yonath stressed that the resistance of bacteria to antibiotics is one of the most serious problems of modern medicine. The development of resistance to antibiotics is particularly contributing to their irrational use-prescribing antibiotics when there is no medical indication for it (for example, in viral infections), as well as not adhering to the instructions to drink the entire dose of antibiotics and not interrupting their taking as soon as the symptomsdisappear. Yonath has provided brutal data that every year 2 million people are affected by bacterial antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections in the United States, and in the European Union such infections cause more than 30,000 deaths annually. Despite the use of specific antibiotics for resistant bacteria, the number of infections doubled. Therefore, we can say that we are entering the "post-antibiotic era," as the World Health Organization calls it. An additional problem lies in the fact that most major pharmaceutical companies have stopped efforts to find new antibiotics because of the great discrepancies between their low social value and the high costs that bring them to their search and come to market. "Bacteria" want "to live and" smarter "than us, at least when it comes to survival!", Yonath stressed. Therefore, it is necessary to seek new therapeutic targets that are not directly linked with the function of ribosomes, cellular organelles for which Ada Yonath has just proved to have a key role in translating RNA into a protein. Precisely because of this fact, bacteria for now do not have the possibility of modifying them and simply creating resistance to such antibiotics. At the same time, she announced the direction in which the development of new antibiotics should go - which is personalization, that is, the creation of antibiotics specific to each individual bacterium, in contrast to the previous antibiotics of the wider spectrum. An additional challenge posed before the development of new antibiotics is to be "friendly" to the environment, that is, they do not represent its additional chemical burden.

Paul Modrich has described in detail his discovery of DNA repair mechanisms of E. coli bacterial mechanisms, and then how these mechanisms are taking place in humans. Repairing DNA damage is extremely important because in its deficiency lies the answer why some people are more susceptible to getting cancer, especially the colon than the other. Also, in people who have already had cancer, lacking or disrupted this DNA repair mechanism, resistance to oncological drugs appears, ie they are not as effective as other people. Equally, the correct and effective repair of DNA damage is important both in response to the action of environmental carcinogens that directly damage DNA and can thus cause cancer, such as, for example, UV radiation in relation to the formation of skin cancer.

Robert Huber first performed the crystallization of the intermembrane protein important for photosynthesis in bacteria, and at the same time determined its three-dimensional structure. For this discovery, in 1988 he received the Nobel Prize together with Hartmut Michele and Johann Deisenhofer. In his rich scientific career he studied various enzymes, including those involved in vitamin and amino acid synthesis, immune system proteins, and hormones and their receptors. He is a co-founder of two pharmaceutical companies, Proteros and Suppremol, established to investigate and develop new drugs for autoimmune diseases, which he currently deals with.

Avram Hershko overlapped on the subject of Huber's previous exposure, on which occasion he exposed a mechanism by which the cell indicates which proteins in it should be broken because they were damaged. Disorders in this regulation are related to the occurrence of cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. Based on his discovery, for which he received the Nobel Prize in 2004, innovative therapeutic approaches and new - smart medicines are being developed today.

Prof. dr. Ada Yonath was the first Israelite and the first woman in the Middle East to receive the Nobel Prize for Science and the first woman in 45 years (2009) to receive the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The subject of her research was ribosomes, the cellular organelles she proved to play a key role in translating RNA into a protein. Kimmelman Center Director at Weizmann Institute is working on the study of the effects of certain antibiotics on the synthesis of proteins and the mechanisms by which bacteria become resistant to their effects. These cognitions are crucial for the development of new antibiotics.

Prof. dr. Paul Modrich Nobel received 2015 to investigate chemical mechanisms for repairing DNA damage in E. coli, and later clarified how this process is taking place in humans. The prize was given to Aziz Sancar and Tomas Lindahl. He showed that cancer cells, lacking this DNA repair mechanism, demonstrate resistance to oncological drugs, and that in that weakness, which is inherited (which is called Syndrome Lynch), lies the answer why some people are more susceptible to cancer, primarily the colon, than others. Today, it also deals with the importance of DNA repair mechanisms in response to the action of carcinogens from the environment.

Prof. dr. Robert Huber first crystallized the intermembrane protein that is important for photosynthesis in bacteria, and at the same time determined his three-dimensional structure. For this discovery, in 1988, he received the Nobel Prize together with Hartmut Michel and Johann Deisenhofer. In his rich scientific career, he studied various enzymes, including those involved in the synthesis of vitamins and amino acids, immune system proteins, and hormones and their receptors. He is a co-founder of two pharmaceutical companies, Proteros and Suppremol, established to research and develop new drugs for autoimmune diseases, which he is currently engaged in.

Prof. dr. Avram Hershko is an Israeli biochemist who was awarded Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 with Aaron Ciechanover and Irwin Rose for the discovery of the way the cell indicates which proteins should be decomposed in it, for example, they were damaged. Disorders in this regulation are related to the occurrence of cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. Today he has the status of a distinguished professor at the Department of Biochemistry B.Rappaport of the Medical Faculty at the Israeli Technology Institute - Technion.

The 11th ISABS Conference on Forensic and Anthropological Genetics and Mayo Clinic Lectures in Individualized Medicine (www.isabs.hr), organized by the International Society for Applied Biosciences (ISABS), is being held from 17 to 22 June 2019 in Split, and this is one of the most prestigious scientific gatherings this year. The conference will be attended by over 600 participants from 45 countries around the world. The fact that more than a million visitors have visited the ISABS official web site to date, since the establishment of ISABS, and 6 000 scientists and 600 invited lecturers from more than 70 countries of the world participated in the work of the Congress, clearly speaks about the power of this Croatian scientific brand, recognized throughout the world.

 
 


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