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NEWS

March 2021 ESRFnews

Valentin Borshchevskiy (left), a researcher at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology in Russia, has won this year s Young Scientist Award for his outstanding contribution to the understanding of structure-based functional properties of membrane proteins. A regular user at the ESRF since 2005, Borshchevskiy initiated the Beamtime Allocation Group (BAG) for Russia five years ago.

About a third of all human proteins are membrane proteins, and these are targets for more than half of all drugs. They are involved in essential cellular and physiological processes, including signal and energy transduction, transport of ions and nutrients, and the catalysis of chemical reactions. Borshchevskiy s own work on membrane proteins at the ESRF started when he was a Master s student back in 2005, and he became a regular user during his PhD years at the Institut de Biologie Structural on the EPN campus. After his PhD, he returned to Russia to help create a laboratory for protein crystallography, which has now become a multi-lab research centre.

He has authored 55 papers, including two in Science. These have concerned two different projects in membrane protein research: G protein- coupled receptors (GPCRs) and retinal proteins, both of which consist of seven transmembrane helixes and are very difficult to crystallise. Retinal proteins are investigated for their optogenetic applications they can absorb light, and either transport a signal through the membrane (as in the eyes) or transport ions and so could be used to restore sight or hearing, or for deep- brain stimulation in neurodegenerative disease. In his studies on the ESRF s structural biology beamlines, Borshchevskiy collects data on both their basic state and when they are activated by light, to understand how their structures organise and therefore how they work. Meanwhile, through their studies of two GPCRs, he and his team have discovered that a mutation in one is responsible for causing a rare and fatal melanoma. They have now found out how to inhibit it, with a view to develop treatments.

The ESRF is absolutely crucial for my research, he said at this year s User Meeting, when he was awarded the prize by the ESRF User Organisation. Without it, I wouldn t be where I am now.

Young Scientist announced

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ESRFMar21_News_v9.indd 9 26/02/2021 10:00