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Little is known about them. However, scientists are studying their role in neurodegenerative diseases and in cancer.
In the supplement El Cultural of the newspaper El Mundo, Miquel Pons and Pau Bernadó, both researchers at IRB Barcelona, analyse the properties of intrinsically disordered proteins, their functions and their relation with diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and cancer. “A third of our proteins are disordered”, and they then go on to say, “diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and diabetes are associated with the accumulation of these proteins”. At the beginning of October, experts in this emerging field met up at the Barcelona Biomed Conference “Intrinsically disordered proteins in biomedicine”, an event organised by IRB Barcelona. There they reported on new data and reached a clear conclusion, namely that the biomedical relevance of these proteins is evident but there is still a long way to go to before we fully understand them.
About IRB Barcelona
The Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) pursues a society free of disease. To this end, it conducts multidisciplinary research of excellence to cure cancer and other diseases linked to ageing. It establishes technology transfer agreements with the pharmaceutical industry and major hospitals to bring research results closer to society, and organises a range of science outreach activities to engage the public in an open dialogue. IRB Barcelona is an international centre that hosts 400 researchers and more than 30 nationalities. Recognised as a Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence since 2011, IRB Barcelona is a CERCA centre and member of the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST).
