Diverse perspectives on interdisciplinarity from members of the college of the Royal Society of Canada

Various multiple-disciplinary terms and concepts (although most commonly “interdisciplinarity,” which is used herein) are used to frame education, scholarship, research, and interactions within and outside academia. In principle, the premise of interdisciplinarity may appear to have many strengths; yet, the extent to which interdisciplinarity is embraced by the current generation of academics, the benefits and risks for doing so, and the barriers and facilitators to achieving interdisciplinarity, represent inherent challenges. Much has been written on the topic of interdisciplinarity, but to our knowledge there have been few attempts to consider and present diverse perspectives from scholars, artists, and scientists in a cohesive manner. As a team of 57 members from the Canadian College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists of the Royal Society of Canada (the College) who self-identify as being engaged or interested in interdisciplinarity, we provide diverse intellectual, cultural, and social perspectives. The goal of this paper is to share our collective wisdom on this topic with the broader community and to stimulate discourse and debate on the merits and challenges associated with interdisciplinarity. Perhaps the clearest message emerging from this exercise is that working across established boundaries of scholarly communities is rewarding, necessary, and is more likely to result in impact. However, there are barriers that limit the ease with which this can occur (e.g., lack of institutional structures and funding to facilitate cross-disciplinary exploration). Occasionally, there can be significant risk associated with doing interdisciplinary work (e.g., lack of adequate measurement or recognition of work by disciplinary peers). Solving many of the world’s complex and pressing problems (e.g., climate change, sustainable agriculture, the burden of chronic disease, and aging populations) demands thinking and working across long-standing, but in some ways restrictive, academic boundaries. Academic institutions and key support structures, especially funding bodies, will play an important role in helping to realize what is readily apparent to all who contributed to this paper—that interdisciplinarity is essential for solving complex problems; it is the new norm. Failure to empower and encourage those doing this research will serve as a great impediment to training, knowledge, and addressing societal issues

HCF-1 is cleaved in the active site of O-GlcNAc transferase.

Host cell factor-1 (HCF-1), a transcriptional co-regulator of human cell-cycle progression, undergoes proteolytic maturation in which any of six repeated sequences is cleaved by the nutrient-responsive glycosyltransferase, O-linked N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc) transferase (OGT). We report that the tetratricopeptide-repeat domain of O-GlcNAc transferase binds the carboxyl-terminal portion of an HCF-1 proteolytic repeat such that the cleavage region lies in the glycosyltransferase active site above uridine diphosphate-GlcNAc. The conformation is similar to that of a glycosylation-competent peptide substrate. Cleavage occurs between cysteine and glutamate residues and results in a pyroglutamate product. Conversion of the cleavage site glutamate into serine converts an HCF-1 proteolytic repeat into a glycosylation substrate. Thus, protein glycosylation and HCF-1 cleavage occur in the same active site

A Magyar Tudományos Akadémia Nyelv- és Irodalomtudományok Osztályának közleményei

This work was supported by a Wellcome Trust Fellowship to T Gloster.The increasing incidence of inducible chromosomal AmpC β-lactamases within the clinic is a growing concern because these enzymes deactivate a broad range of even the most recently developed β-lactam antibiotics. As a result, new strategies are needed to block the action of this antibiotic resistance enzyme. Presented here is a strategy to combat the action of inducible AmpC by inhibiting the β-glucosaminidase NagZ, which is an enzyme involved in regulating the induction of AmpC expression. A divergent route facilitating the rapid synthesis of a series of N-acyl analogues of 2-acetamido-2-deoxynojirimycin is reported here. Among these compounds are potent NagZ inhibitors that are selective against functionally related human enzymes. These compounds reduce minimum inhibitory concentration values for β-lactams against a clinically relevant Gram-negative bacterium bearing inducible chromosomal AmpC β-lactamase, Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The structure of a NagZ-inhibitor complex provides insight into the molecular basis for inhibition by these compounds.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Differential recognition and hydrolysis of host carbohydrate-antigens by Streptococcus pneumoniae family 98 glycoside hydrolases

International audienc

Structure-function relationships of β-D-glucan endo- and exohydrolases from higher plants

Reprinted from Plant Molecular Biology, Volume 47 (1, 11),2001Maria Hrmova, Geoffrey B. Finche