Dr. Robert Colvin presents at a confrence on “Thinking Outside the ATP Box: New ways to Target Kinases for Therapeutics.”
Dr. Robert Colvin, Professor and Chair of Biological Sciences at Ohio University, presented at a conference on “Thinking Outside the ATP Box: New ways to Target Kinases for Therapeutics,” which brought together top researchers in the field to explore and discuss cutting-edge research and challenges to developing highly specific inhibitors to protein kinases.
Colvin attended the one-day symposium on May 22 at the New York Academy of Sciences headquarters at the World Trade Center in New York, where he presented a poster describing his research collaboration with fellow Ohio University researcher Dr. Justin Holub, Assistant Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry.
Kinases are enzymes that add a phosphate group to proteins (phosphorylate), providing a molecular switch to turn their activity on or off. Kinases are critical players in many human disorders including Alzheimer’s disease, and this is why there is great interest in developing highly specific inhibitors to kinases as therapeutics.
Colvin and Holub are researching small peptides as competitive inhibitors at the substrate binding site, providing a unique opportunity to easily develop a specific inhibitor. Their work has recently been published [Inhibiting Phosphorylation of Tau (τ) Proteins at Ser262 Using Peptide-Based R1 Domain Mimetics], and the technology is patent pending.
Several students in both labs have been involved in the research as well: Cheng Qian, Najah Al Qaeisoom, and Danushka Arachchige.
Comments