by Henrike Indrischek (phd student at Leipzig University): During my research stay at Vanderbilt university this summer, I worked on the biochemical characterization of the interaction of clathrin and visual arrestin in the laboratory of Seva Gurevich and the modeling of this interaction with computational methods in the laboratory of Jens Meiler. The cytosolic arrestin proteins mediate desensitization of activated G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) via competitive binding to the active phosphorylated receptor. As different arrestin conformations can result in specific signaling outcomes, this protein family is an attractive target in drug therapeutics. Non-visual arrestins mediate uptake of the receptors into the cell by also binding clathrin, a component of the endocytosis
by Thomas Ebert (postdoc at Leipzig University): From January 3rd, 2014 – April 4th 2014, I had the opportunity to stay at the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) in Nashville, Tennessee as a visiting scholar. In our group in Leipzig (headed by Prof. Mathias Fasshauer), we focus on adipocyte-secreted proteins, so called adipokines, in renal dysfunction. To investigate adipokines in diabetic nephropathy (DN), a severe consequence of long-term diabetes mellitus, animal studies are vitally important. The group of Prof. Raymond C. Harris (Chief of the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension at VUMC) introduced the enos db/db-mouse as the currently best mouse model to study