Drugging the undruggable

Bringing Chemistry to Life

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Chemical biology is a relatively recent discipline where thinking about biomolecules as big organic molecules isn’t shocking, but it was completely revolutionary just 3 or 4 decades ago. What is undeniable is that chemistry offers a new lens to observe, interact with and alter biological phenomena. Chemistry opens the possibility to understand biomolecules at the atomic level and to leverage traditional organic chemistry methods to change their function, ultimately influencing macroscopic biological phenomena.

Dr. Shanique Borteley Alabi has been thinking about how chemicals can influence humans ever since childhood observations of her grandfather at work in his pharmacy, in Ghana. She now uses chemistry to influence the interaction between cellular proteins by designing small molecules that work as “glues” for macromolecules.

She spent her PhD developing “proteolysis targeted chimeras” (ProTaC), the use of small molecules with affinity for both a specific protein target and for kinases that tag proteins to initiate their degradation. She now works on similar concepts to selectively initiate and promote the interaction between natural proteins with the objective of amplifying specific natural pathways to treat disease. This is the frontier of drug development, going beyond simple competitive inhibition and promising a way to develop drugs for undruggable targets.

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