10 January 2014

A major breakthrough by a team from the Université de Sherbrooke and the CHUS’ Centre de recherche clinique Étienne-Le Bel (CRCELB—Clinical Research Centre) is among the top 10 discoveries of the year, according to Québec Science magazine. Researcher Xavier Roucou and his team discovered more than 80 000 new proteins, referred to as alternative proteins.

This is a very important discovery from several perspectives: it provides new avenues for research on certain neurodegenerative diseases, and it challenges one of the principles of cellular biology, which states that a gene directs the production of a single protein.

The Sherbrooke team demonstrated that, instead, the information transmitted by messenger RNAs (mRNAs) can be decoded in several ways, and thus lead to the production of a number of alternative proteins as well as the reference protein. According to the data gathered to date, each mRNA codes an average of 3.8 proteins.

Vote!

Québec Science magazine invites the public to vote for the discovery of the year from among the 10 discoveries chosen by the jury.

» Vote for Xavier Roucou’s discovery

The contest ends on February 20, 2014, at 11:59 p.m.

Sources: CHUS’ Centre de recherche clinique Étienne-Le Bel, Université de Sherbrooke and Québec Science
Photo credit: Maxime Béland

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