KBC Lecture
Tage-Erlander Professor 2011
Paul Helquist
Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana
Title:
From Simple Diene Chemistry to Therapies for Rare and Neglected Diseases
Abstract
In a joint set of ventures, the Wiest and Helquist laboratories at Notre Dame, specializing in computational chemistry and drug synthesis, respectively, are supported by various funding mechanisms to reach out to investigators in other fields and at many institutions to form multi-disciplinary collaborative teams for the purpose of drug development. Most often, the external collaborators are at medical schools or other biomedical institutions and have major strengths in biological or clinical studies but do not have the chemistry expertise required for drug development. These collaborators have often identified a potential therapeutic protein target from cellular studies, or they have conducted compound screenings to identify initial hits. The next logical steps in these investigations are the design of protein binders or hit optimization, requiring the computational and synthetic chemistry input of our laboratories. The resulting compounds are provided back to the external collaborators and other appropriate parties for more extensive biological studies. Over the past few years, these collaborative ties have been established with many investigators at Cornell University Weill College of Medicine, Tufts University Medical School, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, Washington University School of Medicine, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Broad Institute, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Purdue University, State University of New York at Albany, and Biological Sciences at Notre Dame.
This presentation will place emphasis on the history of our development of synthetic methods for dienes, especially with colleagues in Sweden, and the synthesis of target compounds as potential drugs for treating cancer and a rare, inherited disease.
Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics
Defence Licentiate Thesis
Jenny Nordén
Title:
Multifaceted adhesion properties of Helicobacter pylori in promotion of gastric disease
Supervisor: Thomas Borén
Place: Lilla hörsalen KB3A9, KBC
Department of Clinical Microbiology
Extra Seminar
Title:
High-Throughput Screening in an Academic Setting, a Bona Fide Path to Novel Therapeutics and Tool Molecules?
Speaker:
Kurt Lackovic
Walter and Eliza Hall Institute Melbourne, Australia
Place: Betula, University Hospital, building 6 M
The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research was one of the first academic institutions in the world to establish a high-throughput screening facility. How this Facility operates, along with the format of projects, outcomes to date, examples of projects, and recent expansion to include high-content screening will be discussed.
Biography Paragraph:
Dr Kurt Lackovic completed his PhD in analytical chemistry in 2003. He then relocated to Sweden for his initial post doctoral placement, at the Department of Medical Biosciences, Umeå University, Sweden. Dr Lackovic returned to Melbourne in October 2006, immediately taking a position in the WEHI High-Throughput Chemical Screening (HTCS) Facility. In his current role, Dr Lackovic is responsible for managing collaborative research projects seeking lead-like molecules across a broad range of target classes and disease types, developing novel techniques, and reporting findings. In addition, he is responsible for the HTCS Facility's high-content imaging capabilities.
Recent publications include:
Croker et al. Fas-mediated neutrophil apoptosis is accelerated by Bid, Bak, and Bax and inhibited by Bcl-2 and Mcl-1. Proc Natl AcadSci U S A. 2011 108:13135-40.
Lackovic K, Parisot JP, Sleebs N, Baell JB, Debien L, Watson KG, Curtis JM,Handman E, Street IP, Kedzierski L. Inhibitors of Leishmania GDP-mannose pyrophosphorylase identified by high-throughput screening of small-molecule chemical library. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2010 54:1712-9.