Keshelava A, Solis GP, Hersch M, Koval A, Kryuchkov M, Bergmann S, Katanaev. Nat Commun. 2018 Feb 28;9(1):876. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-02868-y.
Hacking a cell’s communication system is a common feat of information diseases, such as cancer. Understanding how information is conveyed at the molecular level is therefore crucial. So far, one of the most common cell receptors – those molecular “detectors” converting an external signal into information used inside the cell – was thought to function only as on/off switches. Together with the team of Sven Bergmann at the Department of Computational Biology and the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, we have provided the first direct experimental evidence that these receptors can also reliably convey multiple levels of signal concentrations. The findings, published in Nature Communications, have fundamental implications in developmental biology, and open new research avenues for targeted drugs.