UKProNet

UKProNet: State-of-the-art

Proteins drive all essential life processes. To maintain their function, organisms invest heavily in protein homeostasis (“proteostasis”), which covers the synthesis, folding, trafficking, and degradation of proteins. These conserved protein quality control (PQC) mechanisms operate from the molecular to the organismal level and support responses to both normal and stress conditions.

A deep understanding of proteostasis is increasingly vital to address major global challenges:

Ageing and health. PQC declines with age, leading to toxic protein aggregates that contribute to ageing and neurodegenerative diseases. New targeted protein degradation technologies offer promising therapeutic avenues, but fully exploiting them requires deeper knowledge of PQC and innovative synthetic biology approaches.

Food security. Improving crop yield, nutrition, and resilience is essential for a growing population. Plant genomes contain exceptionally large PQC gene families, reflecting their adaptation to pathogens and environmental stress. These mechanisms offer major opportunities to engineer more resilient crops and animals.

Barriers to progress. Despite strong UK expertise in proteostasis, research remains fragmented across small, disconnected communities. A unified, cross-disciplinary network with an ambitious vision is needed. UKProNet aims to address this by delivering three key objectives.