Southeastern Chemical Biology and Drug Design Symposium
Featuring cutting-edge research talks on the frontiers of chemical biology, drug discovery and development, and molecular medicine.
The Southeastern Chemical Biology and Drug Design Symposium will focus on the research frontiers of chemical biology, drug discovery and development, and molecular medicine, this symposium will include cutting-edge research talks and poster presentations by a diverse group of faculty, post-doctoral scholars, graduate and undergraduate students.
Registration Deadline
- Tuesday, Sept. 8 @ 11:59 ET - Register Here
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Symposium Agenda
Location: Marcus Nanotechnology Building, Rooms 1116-1118 (unless otherwise noted)
- 7:30 a.m. Check-in | Continental Breakfast
- 8:20 a.m. Welcome - Adegboyega Oyelere, Symposium Chair, Georgia Tech
- 8:20 a.m. Opening Remarks - Vicki Wysocki, Chair, School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Georgia Tech
Session I - Oral Presentations
Moderator: Tyler Beyett
- 8:30 a.m. "Targeting Highly Aggressive Cancers by Uncovering Druggable Vulnerabilities" - Ozgur Sahin, Medical University of South Carolina
- 8:50 a.m. "Inhibition of Topoisomerase IIα Activity by Linker Histone H1" - Yuhong Fan, Georgia Institute of Technology
- 9:10 a.m. "Neo-Cysteine Molecular Glues for Targeting Mutated SMAD4 Protein" - Pooja Kumari, Emory University
- 9:30 a.m. "In Vivo Efficacy of Abbapolin Degraders of the PLK1 PBD and Synergy With Androgen Therapy in Prostate Cancer" - Shikha Kumari, University of South Carolina
- 9:50 a.m. "Cathepsin Inhibitor Suppresses the Growth of Ectopic Hepatocellular Carcinoma Tumors in Mouse Models" - Olamide Crown, Alabama A&M University
- 10:10 a.m. Break
Session II - Oral Presentations
Moderator: Campbell McInnes
- 10:40 a.m. "Turning α-Amylase Activity Into Light: Polycyclic 1,2-BN-Heteroarene-Based AIE Supramolecular Nanocapsules for Biosensing" - Carl Saint-Louis, Kennesaw State University
- 11 a.m. "Passive and Activatable Targeting of Near-Infrared Fluorophores for Tissue, Bone, Cartilage, and Disease Imaging in Image-Guided Surgery" - Maged Henary, Georgia State University
- 11:20 a.m. "Application of Natural and Semisynthetic Saponins in Biomedicine" - Pengfei Wang, University of Alabama at Birmingham
- 11:40 a.m. "FMCAP (DDG-002): A Potent Modified-Nucleotide Analog Against Monkeypox Virus (MPXV)" - Uma Singh, University of Georgia
- 12 p.m. "Developing Ir(III)/Ru(II) Bisterpyridine Complexes as Antimicrobial Photodynamic Therapeutic Agents" - Wenfang Sun, The University of Alabama
- 12:20 p.m. Lunch - Petit Biotechnology Building ("IBB") - next door to Marcus Nanotech Bldg.
Session III - Oral Presentations
Moderator: Y. George Zheng
- 1:30 p.m. "Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) Research: How Much Do We Really Know What Our Tools Are Measuring?" - Binghe Wang, Georgia State University
- 1:50 p.m. "A Compact Tag-Directed Platform Enables Rapid Targeted Protein Degradation" - Dongwen Lyu, Augusta University
- 2:10 p.m. "Optical Tools for Precisely Controlling Dopamine Receptors" - Prashant Donthamsetti, Vanderbilt University
- 2:30 p.m. "Advancing Lead Generation: Overcoming Selectivity Challenges With DNA-Encoded Libraries" - Srinivas Chamakuri, Baylor College of Medicine
- 2:50 p.m. Break
Session IV - Keynote Lecture
Moderator: Alex G. Waterson
- 3:10 p.m. Keynote Presentation - "A Novel Chemical Biology Platform for Deubiquitylases" - Sara Buhrlage, Harvard Medical School*
- 4:20 p.m. Introduction of Poster Session and Poster Award - Victor Ogungbe, University of Alabama in Huntsville
- 4:30 p.m. Poster Session and Networking Reception - Atrium
- 6:30 p.m. Adjourn
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*Keynote Lecture:
Sara Burlage
Associate Professor
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute department of Cancer Biology
Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology
Harvard Medical School
ABSTRACT
Deubiquitylases (DUBs) are a large family of enzymes that remove ubiquitin or ubiquitin chains from substrate proteins. Similar to other components of the UPS, DUBs have been associated with disease and pursued as drug targets. Despite enthusiasm around targeting DUBs both with inhibitors as well as DUBTACs, there remain unanswered fundamental questions around substrates and substrate scope as well as how DUBs work at a detailed mechanistic level. The overarching goal of our lab is to develop chemical tools that can be deployed to study basic function and translational potential of DUBs. Our platform integrates DUB library synthesis, medicinal chemistry, biochemistry, high-throughput screening, chemoproteomics, chemical genomics, structural biology, target validation and cancer biology. I will discuss recent discoveries enabled by our platform including new mechanism-of-action ligands for DUBs and their study in rare disease as well as new insights into DUB interplay with other components of the UPS.
BIO
Sara Buhrlage is an Associate Professor holding joint appointments in the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute department of Cancer Biology and the Harvard Medical School department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology. Buhrlage is a leader in harnessing deubiquitylases (DUBs) as emergent drug targets, where her lab has pioneered new approaches for interrogating DUB function, new insights into the chemical tractability of DUBs, and mapping the therapeutic potential of DUBs in cancer. In addition to research, she is dedicated to graduate education, holding leadership roles in multiple graduate programs and teaching graduate level courses. More recently, she has become involved in biotech and company creation as a scientific founder of Entact Bio. Buhrlage earned a Doctor of Philosophy in organic chemistry from the University of Michigan and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Broad Institute.