Meeting Report on FASEB Protein Arginine Methylation: Mechanism to Therapeutics
The inaugural FASEB conference Protein Arginine Methylation: Mechanism to Therapeutics was held in Tsukuba, Japan (January 5-8, 2026) and brought together investigators studying protein arginine methyltransferases (PRMTs) and its methylarginine product. Post-translational arginine methylation, found as monomethylarginine (MMA/Rme1), asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA/Rme2a), and symmetric dimethylarginine (SDMA/Rme2s), is increasingly recognized as a central regulator of RNA metabolism, chromatin function, and cellular stress responses. Presentations highlighted emerging directions for the field, including mechanisms linking PRMT activity to RNA processing and gene expression, roles in genome stability, identification of new methylarginine reader proteins, and connections between PRMT function and cellular metabolism. Work on immune and antiviral pathways and neuroscience further expanded the biological scope of PRMT activity. At the same time, significant advances in chemical probes, degraders, and selective inhibitors are enabling more precise interrogation of PRMT biology and accelerating efforts to translate these discoveries into therapeutic strategies.
Authors
- Michael Yu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3611-9295)
- Clare C. Davies (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3097-1791)
- Taiping Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2524-6440)
- Pooja A. Shah (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5445-0443)
- Misuzu Hashimoto (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7882-9885)
- Koichiro Kako (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5655-581X)
- Rong Huang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1477-3165)
- Joan M. Hevel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9559-4635)
- David Shechter (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9388-6004)
- Shihuan Kuang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9180-3180)
- Irina Tikhanovich (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1041-8032)
- Ngoc Tung Tran (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0896-8641)
- Thierry Dubois (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4739-6164)
- Minkui Luo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7409-7034)
- Xinyang Zhao
- Yanzhong Yang
- Mark T. Bedford
- Andrey Parhitko
- Dalia Barsyte-Lovejoy
- Purusharth Rajyaguru
- Akiyoshi Fukamizu
- Wei Xu
- Xiao-Meng Li
Institutions
- Utah State University (US)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Albert Einstein College of Medicine (US)
- Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (US)
- The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (US)
- University of Wisconsin–Madison (US)
- University of Tsukuba (JP)
- Duke University (US)
- University of Toronto (CA)
- Cornell University (US)
- Purdue University West Lafayette (US)
- Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (FR)
- Sorbonne Université (FR)
- UPMC Health System (US)
- City of Hope (US)
- University of Kansas Medical Center (US)
- University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (US)
- Cancer Research UK Clinical Trials Unit (GB)
- Cancer Genetics (United States) (US)
- Gifu University (JP)
- Beckman Research Institute
- Indiana University School of Medicine
- Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis (US)
- Indian Institute of Science Bangalore (IN)
- University at Buffalo, State University of New York (US)
- University of Birmingham (GB)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Journal of Biological Chemistry
- Published
- 2026-04-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbc.2026.111448
- Primary Topic
- Cancer-related gene regulation
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- AstraZeneca
- Uehara Memorial Foundation
- Japanese Biochemical Society
- University of Tsukuba