The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
Meet Hopkins engineer and INBT researcher Stavroula Sofou tomorrow at our next Women in Cancer Research seminar. You will want to learn about, “impenetrable Tumors and Untargetable Cancers: Engineering Nanocarrier Surfaces to do the (Apparently) Impossible.” #CancerResearch
Test to link.
Cognitive impairment is a core feature of many psychiatric and neurological disorders. Currently available therapies do not significantly improve cognitive impairment. Dopaminergic neurotransmission in the prefrontal cortex is important for the regulation of cognitive function and therapeutic interventions that modulate dopaminergic function in the cortex could improve cognition. The enzyme catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) is a key regulator of dopaminergic tone in the cortex and hippocampus and individual variability in COMT function is associated with differences in cognitive function. Tolcapone, a COMT inhibitor, has been approved as a treatment for the motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease but it has multiple features that prevent its widespread use as a cognitive enhancer including poor pharmacokinetics (PK) that require 3X/day dosing in patients and a black box warning for potentially fatal liver toxicity. Carr’s team developed non-nitrocatechol, COMT inhibitors with improved PK and safety profiles compared to tolcapone. They will describe multiple novel compounds with promising preclinical in vivo profiles that may be suitable for clinical trials testing their cognitive enhancement capabilities.
The Summer Seminar Series is co-sponsored by PS-OC and the Institute for NanoBioTechnology.
The repertoire of naturally occurring proteins is limited and many molecules induce multiple conflicting effects. Protein engineering affords researchers the unprecedented capacity to create new molecules with novel and therapeutically useful activities. Researchers have traditionally taken an unbiased approach to protein engineering, but as our knowledge of protein structure-function relationships advances, we have the exciting opportunity to apply molecular principles to guide engineering. Leveraging cutting-edge tools and exclusive expertise in structural biology and molecular design, the Spangler Lab implements a unique structure-based engineering approach to elucidate the determinants of protein activity and inform drug development. Building on molecular insights, our group aims to redesign existing proteins and engineer new proteins to serve as targeted therapeutics to treat immune diseases such as cancer, infectious diseases, and autoimmune disorders.
The Summer Seminar Series is co-sponsored by the Physical Sciences-Oncology Center and INBT.
