Appointment period: 6/10/2019 to 6/09/2021

PhD in Integrated Biosciences—Chemical Biology, University of Minnesota

Project

Proteolysis is a cellular process that results in the degradation of proteins into smaller peptides or amino acids. Proteolysis occurs through a selective ubiquitin mediated pathway where targeted proteins are ubiquitinated and subsequently recognized by proteasomes to be degradation. Recently, it has been shown that utilization of the proteolysis pathway can be selectively employed for the development of novel cancer therapies. Proteolysis targeting chimera’s (PROTAC’s) are bifunctional compounds that contain two ligands bound together by a linker. The role of the first ligand is to bind to a protein of interest and the second is to recruit E3 ligases for the ubiquitination resulting in the initial recruitment of proteasomes and eventual degradation of the target protein. My research is focused on the design, synthesis, and evaluation of novel PROTAC’s as potential anti-cancer agents.