{"id":228504,"date":"2026-01-07T06:05:59","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T12:05:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/boosting-the-cells-own-cleanup-new-class-of-small-molecules-accelerate-natural-protein-degradation"},"modified":"2026-01-07T06:05:59","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T12:05:59","slug":"boosting-the-cells-own-cleanup-new-class-of-small-molecules-accelerate-natural-protein-degradation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/boosting-the-cells-own-cleanup-new-class-of-small-molecules-accelerate-natural-protein-degradation","title":{"rendered":"Boosting the cell\u2019s own cleanup: New class of small molecules accelerate natural protein degradation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/boosting-the-cells-own-cleanup-new-class-of-small-molecules-accelerate-natural-protein-degradation.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Cells have a remarkable housekeeping system: Proteins that are no longer needed, defective, or potentially harmful are labeled with a molecular \u201ctag\u201d and dismantled in the cellular recycling machinery. This process, known as the ubiquitin-proteasome system, is crucial for health and survival.<\/p>\n<p>Now, an international team of scientists led by CeMM, AITHYRA and the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology in Dortmund has identified a new class of small molecules that harness this natural system to accelerate the removal of an immune-modulating enzyme called IDO1.<\/p>\n<p>The findings, <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s41557-025-02021-5\" target=\"_blank\">published<\/a> in <i>Nature Chemistry<\/i>, introduce a new concept in drug discovery that could transform how we target difficult proteins in cancer and beyond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cells have a remarkable housekeeping system: Proteins that are no longer needed, defective, or potentially harmful are labeled with a molecular \u201ctag\u201d and dismantled in the cellular recycling machinery. This process, known as the ubiquitin-proteasome system, is crucial for health and survival. Now, an international team of scientists led by CeMM, AITHYRA and the Max [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1495],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-228504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228504\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}