Research in my laboratory is concerned with the design of small molecules and proteins for the purpose of altering cellular processes and developing new anti-cancer therapeutics. We are particularly interested in modulating signaling mediated by cell surface receptors that play critical role in tumor invasion and metastasis. Our molecular designs are performed using structure-based computational biology and chemistry tools and fall into three projects. In the first project we are designing small molecules to bind at the protein-protein interface or at other sites that have the potential for allosteric effects. The second project involves the grafting of stably folded small scaffold proteins to bind to unrelated receptors and to modulate their interactions and signaling. The third project follows a systems biology approach whereby structural information from the human proteome is used to guide our efforts. We follow a chemical biology route where we validate our designs and characterize the mechanism of action of designer molecules using various biochemical, biophysical, structural and cell culture-based techniques.
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