Welcome to the Boland lab!

We are a friendly, focused and enthusiastic group working at the intersection of Structural Biology, Molecular Biology and Cell Biology. We leverage the latest developments in Structural Biology, and here in particular cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) with complementary biophysical techniques (proteomics, light-microscopy, microfluidics, etc.), to adress complex biological questions in the field of cell cycle regulation and cell signaling.

LATEST NEWS

OUR GROUP IN OCT'23

In our first collaboration with the labs of Thomas Mayer, Florian Stengel (both University of Konstanz) and Tanja Bange (LMU Munich) we show that that a positively charged pocket in cyclin B1, and binds phosphorylated serine- or threonine-residues, is essential for correct execution of mitosis

Link to our research and the Preprint

PREPRINT CYCLIN B1 PHOSPHATE-BINDING POCKET

Apr'24

WELCOME TO OUR GROUPS, ELDA!

Nov'23

Elda Bauda will join our group as a PostDoc jointly associated with the group of Robbie Loewith working on multi-protein complexes involved in energy metabolism! We are very much looking forward to your arrival in December!

CONGRATULATIONS DR. ANNA HÖFLER!

Nov '23

Anna brilliantly defended her PhD thesis. We wish you all the best for your future endeavours.

PREPRINT OPIOID RECEPTOR-
NANOBODY COMPLEX

December '23

In our first collaboration with the lab of Prof. Miriam Stoeber (and many others) we determine the structure of the µ-opioid receptor in complex with a selective nanobody, termed NbE. This new biologics could could guide future drug design studies, potentially leading to painkillers without the severe drawbacks of current drugs, giving patients and clinicians new hope in the battle against chronic pain.

Link to our research and the Preprint

March '24

ANDREA SVORINIC WILL JOIN THE STOEBER/BOLAND LABS

Andrea Svorinic will join the laboratories of Prof. Miriam Stoeber and ours to work on membrane proteins targeted and regulated by nanobodies. We are very excited to see you coming to Geneva in March. A hearty welcome, Andrea!

CONGRATULATIONS DR. LINA POULAIN

March '24

Lina successfully defended her PhD thesis project and is now officially a new Dr.! We heartily congratulate you Lina and wish you all the best for your future. Thank you for all the work you have done in the lab.

RESEARCH PROJECTS

Our Current Focus

STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION OF CELL CYCLE REGULATORY PROTEINS

MEMBRANE PROTEIN BIOLOGY

UNDERSTANDING THE MOLECULAR BASIS OF METABOLIC PROTEIN CLUSTERS

GROUP PHOTO (in our EM facility...)

bottom - from left to right:

Anna HÖFLER, Lina POULAIN, Margherita BOTTO.

top - from left to right:

Jun YU, Andreas BOLAND, Yvan PFISTER, Ilse SCHAEFFNER, Sophia SCHMIDT, Xuefeng ZHANG, and Li YAO

Details to each lab member

PUBLICATIONS

Selected publications (Boland group)

Positively charged specificity site in cyclin B1 is essential for mitotic fidelity. Heinzle C, Höfler A, Yu J, Heid P, Kremer N, Stengel F, Bange T, , Boland A and Mayer TU. Research Square.

Structural Basis of μ-Opioid Receptor-Targeting by a Nanobody Antagonist. Yu J*, Kumar A, Zhang X, Martin C, Raia P, Kohl A, Laeremans T, Steyaert J, Manglik A, Ballet S, Boland A and Stoeber M. BioRxiv.

New structural features of the APC/C revealed by high resolution cryo-EM structures of apo-APC/C and the APC/C:CDH1:EMI1 complex. Höfler A, Yu J, Yang J, Zhang Z, Chang L, Grime GW, Garman EF, Boland A and Barford D. BioRxiv (and in revision).

The molecular mechanisms of human separase regulation.

Yu J, Morgan DO, Boland A.Biochem Soc Transactions. 2023 Jun 28

CEMIP (HYBID, KIAA1199): structure, function and expression in health and disease.
Spataro S, Guerra C, Cavalli A, Sgrignani J, Sleeman J, Poulain L, Boland A, Scapozza L, Moll S, Prunotto M.
FEBS Journal. 2022 Aug 23

Hepatic S100A9-TLR4-mTORC1 axis normalizes diabetic ketogenesis.
Ursino G, Ramadori G, Höfler A, Odouard S, Teixeira PS, Visentin F, Veyrat-Durebex C, Lucibello G, Firnkes R, Ricci S, Vianna CR, Jia L, Dirlewanger M, Klee P, Elmquist JK, Roth J, Vogl T, Schwitzgebel VM, Jornayvaz FR, Boland A, Coppari R.
Nature Communications. 2022 13(1):4107

Structural basis of human separase regulation by securin and Cdk1-cyclin B1.
Yu J, Raia P, Ghent CM, Raisch T, Sadian Y, Cavadini S, Sabale PM, Barford D, Raunser S, Morgan DO, Boland A.
Nature. 2021 Aug;596(7870):138-142.

All our work is open access.