Lab
Precision Medicine and Metabolism LAB (https://www.omilletlab.com)
Institution: Center for Cooperative Research in Biosciences
Department: Structural Biology Unit
About the lab
Protein stability (thermodynamic and kinetic) drives the biophysical properties of the polypeptide chain (protein folding) and the protein's concentration in the cellular environment (protein homeostasis). It is the result of a delicate balance between inter- and intramolecular interactions, which can be easily altered by mutations and/or upon changes in the composition of the surrounding media. In this context, NMR spectroscopy offers a plethora of suitable experiments to investigate protein stability.
https://www.omilletlab.com/
https://www.omilletlab.com/
Featured research (3)
In vitro maturation (IVM) of oocytes is clinically used in horses to produce blastocysts but current conditions used for horses are suboptimal. We analyzed the composition of equine preovulatory follicular fluid (FF) secretome and tested its effects on meiotic competence and gene expression in oocytes subjected to IVM. Preovulatory FF was obtained, concentrated using ultrafiltration with cut-off of 10 kDa, and stored at -80°C. The metabolic and proteomic composition was analyzed, and its ultrastructural composition was assessed by cryo-transmission microscopy. Oocytes obtained post-mortem or by ovum pick up (OPU) were subjected to IVM in the absence (control) or presence of 20 or 40 μg/ml (S20 or S40) of secretome. Oocytes were then analyzed for chromatin configuration or snap frozen for gene expression analysis. Proteomic analysis detected 255 proteins in the Equus caballus database, mostly related to the complement cascade and cholesterol metabolism. Metabolomic analysis yielded 14 metabolites and cryo-transmission electron microscopy analysis revealed the presence of extracellular vesicles (EVs). No significant differences were detected in maturation rates among treatments. However, the expression of GDF9 and BMP15 significantly increased in OPU-derived oocytes compared to post-mortem oocytes (fold increase ± SEM: 9.4 ± 0.1 vs. 1 ± 0.5 for BMP15 and 9.9 ± 0.3 vs. 1 ± 0.5 for GDF9, respectively; p < 0.05). Secretome addition increased the expression of TNFAIP6 in S40 regardless of the oocyte source. Further research is necessary to fully understand whether secretome addition influences the developmental competence of equine oocytes.
Lab head
Members (18)
José M Mato
Tammo Diercks
Tammo Diercks
Iratxe Macías