Current and Past Sprout Projects
Development and optimization of novel protein-based antifungals for therapeutic and agricultural applications
PI: Alex Johnson, Kaushik Ragunathan
Team: Angie Como-Mosconi, Alexandra Latuda, Emma Kote
Fungal pathogens cause devastating diseases in humans and plants, which threaten public health and agricultural supplies. New antifungals are rarely developed, and there is a need for cheap and effective methods to manage the global fungal burden. We discovered a class of protein-based antifungals and seek to develop these molecules for human therapeutic and agricultural applications. This project will develop and patent this new class of antifungals.
Discovery and development of novel α-cyano-acrylamide-based degraders for Targeted Protein Degradation
PI: Lizbeth Hedstrom
Team: Penchala Narasimharao Meka, Ann Lawson
Proteolysis-targeting chimeras (PROTACs) recruit target proteins to E3 ligases for ubiquitination and subsequent degradation. The commonly used E3 ligases CRBN and VHL face challenges due to tissue-restricted expression and resistance. We have developed a novel molecular scaffold that induces the degradation of the oncogenic transcriptional regulator BRD4 by a distinct PROTAC-like mechanism. This project aims to optimize the molecular scaffold and extend the approach to degrade additional protein classes, including cancer targets.