Invitation to a seminar by Maria Górna, PhD I 19.01.2024 (FRIDAY)

16 01 2024

The Centre of New Technologies, University of Warsaw invites to a seminar by
Maria Górna, PhD Biological and Chemical Research Centre, University of Warsaw

“TOWARDS NEXT GENERATION ANTIMICROBIAL DRUGS: TARGETED DEGRADATION OF
BACTERIAL PROTEINS”

Date: 19th January 2024, Friday

Time: 12:00 pm (Central European Time)

Host: Silvio Osella, PhD

The seminar will be in the CeNT aula hall (00.142) on the main floor.

Abstract:

Revolutionary drugs called PROteolysis TArgeting Chimeras that direct proteins of interest for degradation have become the hot new trend in drug discovery and protein function studies in humans. PROTACs show less drug resistance and could meet the urgent need for new “superantibiotics” against multi-drug resistant pathogens (aka “superbugs”). Yet, these promising drugs could not be applied in bacteria, which lack the ubiquitin-proteasome system typically recruited to target proteins. We aim to create a bacterial PROTAC technology acting universally in bacteria to knock down target endogenous proteins – we engineer the missing chimeric compounds to couple targets directly to proteases. Our first invention are the Clp-Interacting Peptidic Protein Erasers (CLIPPERs) which are chimeric peptides that recruit the ClpXP protease to knock down target endogenous proteins in Escherichia coli. CLIPPERs show antimicrobial activity when directed against essential proteins and can be used as tools to study protein function and to validate antimicrobial drug targets.

A reference to our review on the topic:
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmolb.2021.669762

A pioneering approach by another group:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2022.05.009