Interactome specialist Gergo Gogl receives a permanent research post at IGBMC
In 2023, three IGBMC scientists got a permanent position as researchers, we decided to present their research and we are starting with Gergo Gogl. Joining the Travé team at IGBMC in 2019, Gergo Gogl studies the protein-protein interactome, the set of physical and functional interactions between proteins within a cell. Having made invaluable advances in the methodology used to study these phenomena, the young researcher's ambition is to one day map the entire interactome of the human body.
Gergo Gogl, passionate about research since the age of 16
It was at the age of 16, in 2006, that Gergo Gogl gained his first laboratory experience, thanks to a program for high-school students in Hungary. In 2008, he joined the chemistry faculty at Eötvös Lorand University (ELTE), Budapest. At the same time, he joined Attila Reményi's laboratory, where he studied the structural basis of intracellular signaling molecules. Gergo Gogl began his thesis in 2014, in Laszlo Nyitray's laboratory, where he characterized the interactions enabling activation of the RSK1 protein kinase and those resulting its inhibition. During his thesis, Gergo Gogl also worked for a brief period in Susan S. Taylor's group at the University of Chicago San Diego.
In 2019, he joins the IGBMC for a post-doctorate in Gilles Travé's team, whose aim was to characterize the interactomes of the papillomavirus E6 protein.
The interactome, a question of proportion between proteins
The term interactome defines all molecular interactions between different biological components. Gergo Gogl's studies focus on a specific type of interactome: the protein-protein interactome. "A better understanding of the interactome sheds light on the rules underlying the interactions necessary for our bodies to function properly. Little by little, our research is building a mathematical model that will enable us to predict which proportion is beneficial or negative," explains Gergo Gogl.
A vast ambition: to map the interactions between the 20,000 proteins in the human body!
"Historically, the study of the interactome was carried out either qualitatively at large scales, or quantitatively interaction by interaction", explains Gergo Gogl, "in recent years, I have developed together with my colleague and wife, Boglarka Zambo, an inexpensive and easy-to-implement quantitative analysis method that enables large scale quantitative studies". Working with Gilles Travé's team, the researcher has elaborated a method called Native Holdup, which measures the affinity of a molecule with a large battery of other molecules of cell extracts in a single experiment.
Tested in several IGBMC teams, the method provided valuable insights through a better understanding of the interactome in a variety of pathological contexts. "My ambition is to map the interactomes between the 20,000 proteins in the human body", says Gergo Gogl, "but before that, I want to show that it's possible. My project involves providing a proof of concept and mapping the interactome of the simplest human cell, platelets, containing just 2,000 proteins".
Focusing his Inserm project on platelets, blood cells without a nucleus responsible for coagulation, his aim is to establish a mathematical model revealing mechanisms behind dysfunctional platelet disorders by predicting changes in amounts of molecular complexes in the light of changing protein concentrations and unchanging affinities.