# Metabolite Sensing and Regulation of Protein Function

> **NIH NIH R35** · CORNELL UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $389,976

## Abstract

Metabolite Sensing and Regulation of Protein Function
 After the human genome is sequenced, one of the most important challenges in biomedical research is to
understand how gene expression changes in response to various signals and stresses. In other words,
understanding cell signaling mechanisms is of critical importance to understand life processes. This proposal
focuses on how mammalian cells sense certain metabolites and use that information to regulate protein function.
Common cellular metabolites, such as co-enzyme A, glutathione, and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotides, play
important roles in various metabolic pathways. Many protein post-translational modifications also use these
metabolites. Maintaining the concentrations of these metabolites is thus critically important. Cells and organisms
must be able to sense these metabolites and use the information to regulate biological processes. However,
very little is known about the sensing mechanisms for these metabolites. In this MIRA application, I will focus
on using chemical biology techniques to identify how mammalian cells sense common metabolites to regulate
protein function. Preliminary results indicate that this is a highly interesting and exciting area that warrant much
more investigation. This a completely new research direction for my laboratory and is distinct from my previous
and HHMI-supported research. The proposed research will identify many novel regulatory mechanisms of protein
function by small molecule metabolites. This will in turn provide a better understanding of cell signaling and
address one of the most important challenges in biomedical sciences in the postgenomic era. These regulatory
mechanisms can also directly impact the development of therapeutics as they will help to develop allosteric
inhibitors or activators of proteins.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10148782
- **Project number:** 5R35GM131808-03
- **Recipient organization:** CORNELL UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Hening Lin
- **Activity code:** R35 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $389,976
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-05-01 → 2024-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10148782

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10148782, Metabolite Sensing and Regulation of Protein Function (5R35GM131808-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10148782. Licensed CC0.

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