{"id":3194,"date":"2025-01-10T19:01:59","date_gmt":"2025-01-10T19:01:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/?post_type=stories&p=3194"},"modified":"2025-06-27T22:28:32","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T22:28:32","slug":"protein-gone-rogue","status":"publish","type":"stories","link":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/news\/protein-gone-rogue\/","title":{"rendered":"Protein Gone Rogue"},"content":{"rendered":"

T<\/span>he itpa protein<\/span> plays a crucial role in several metabolic processes that are essential to human life. Severe defects in ITPA are uncommon, but the results can be devastating. <\/span><\/p>\n

Infants born with a rare ITPA abnormality, for example, face the risk of a lethal neurological condition known as Developmental and Epileptic Encephalopathy 35. Few diagnosed with the disorder live past their third birthday. Even patients with less severe ITPA deficiencies can experience dangerous side-effects to medications prescribed for other conditions \u2014 including life-threatening conditions.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"EWU
EWU biochemists Nick Burgis (left) and Yao Houndonougbo (right) confer with senior student researcher Sarah Stone.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nick Burgis, professor and chair of chemistry, biochemistry and physics at EWU, is perhaps the nation\u2019s leading authority on the ITPA protein and the genetic processes it regulates. Together with his colleague Yao Houndonougbo, also a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Eastern, Burgis is using that knowledge to pursue development of first-generation molecular-level treatments for ITPA-related disorders.<\/span><\/p>\n

Burgis\u2019 and Houndonougbo\u2019s efforts recently received an important boost from the National Institutes of Health, which last month announced a three-year, $350,000 \u201cresearch enhancement\u201d award that will extend the agency\u2019s previous support for the two scientists and their students.<\/span><\/p>\n

The focus of the work supported by the grant, says Burgis, is to identify a molecule that can restore the ITPA\u2019s proper functionality. To do this, he, Houndonougbo, and their students will deploy a battery of digital and biochemical tools to look for promising molecules among a virtual and physical library of 300,000 molecules housed at UCLA. <\/span><\/p>\n

As part of this effort, Burgis \u2014 along with two, yet-to-be-named Eastern undergraduate researchers \u2014 will travel to Southern California to conduct the molecular hunt with Robert Damoiseaux, the professor of molecular and medical pharmacology who directs UCLA\u2019s Molecular Screening Shared Resources Laboratory.<\/span><\/p>\n

The hoped-for outcome, Burgis says, is a molecular-drug therapy that would benefit all at-risk populations: both infants with encephalopathy as well as older populations with less severe forms of the ITPA deficiency. <\/span><\/p>\n

The project is funded by the NIH\u2019s National Institute of General Medical Sciences.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The itpa protein plays a crucial role in several metabolic processes that are essential to human life. Severe defects in ITPA are uncommon, but the results can be devastating. Infants born with a rare ITPA abnormality, for example, face the risk of a lethal neurological condition known as Developmental and Epileptic Encephalopathy 35. Few diagnosed…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":484,"featured_media":3196,"menu_order":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-3194","stories","type-stories","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","stories_categories-research","stories_categories-science","stories_tags-chemistry","stories_tags-fall-winter-2024-25"],"acf":{"subheading":"NIH announces a $350,000 grant to help two EWU biochemistry professors tackle a deadly disorder.","featured_image_format":"cover","display_featured_image":false,"display_byline":false,"display_date_published":false,"featured_video":"","Links":false,"Resources":false,"page_override_title":"","page_hide_sidebar":false,"page_enable_page_nav":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories\/3194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/stories"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/484"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories\/3194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3199,"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories\/3194\/revisions\/3199"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}