Recent News
Integrated stress response plasticity governs normal cell adaptation to chronic stress via the PP2A-TFE3-ATF4 pathway
Rita A. Avelar, Riya Gupta, Grace Carvette, Felipe da Veiga Leprevost, Medhasri Jasti, Jose Colina, Jessica Teitel, Alexey I. Nesvizhskii, Caitlin M. O’Connor, Maria Hatzoglou. Shirish Shenolikar, Peter Arvan, Goutham Narla, Analisa DiFeo Cell Death and...
A first-in-class selective inhibitor of EGFR and PI3K offers a single-molecule approach to targeting adaptive resistance
Christopher Whitehead, Elizabeth Ziemke, Christy Frankowski-McGregor, Rachel Mumby, June Chungm Jinju Li, Nathaniel Osher, Oluwadara Coker, Veerabhadran Baladandayuthapani, Scott Kopetz, Judith Sebolt-Leopold. Despite tremendous progress in precision oncology,...
Tim Cernak sat down with Michigan Public radio show Stateside to discuss what role pharmacists can play in decreasing plant and animal extinctions.
On May 2nd, Tim Cernak, assistant professor of Medicinal Chemistry and Chemistry at the University of Michigan, sat down with April Baer from Stateside to discuss the role pharmacists can play in decreasing the rate of plant and animal extinctions. While most people...
When to select an academic drug discovery center instead of a contract research organization
Professors Charles P. Hart, Director & Michelle Arkin from UCSF discuss how university drug discovery centers fill a niche in the biotherapuetics ecosystem. "... there are several considerations that come into play around deciding between a commercial CRO or an...
Live cell screening to identify RNA-binding small molecule inhibitors of the pre-let-7–Lin28 RNA– protein interaction
Sydney L. Rosenblum, Dalia M. Soueid, George Giambasu, Steve Vander Roest, Alexander Pasternak, Erin F. DiMauro, Vladimir Simov and Amanda L. Garner RSC Medicinal Chemistry 2024 https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2024/md/d4md00123k Dysregulation of the...
Structure–Activity Relationships of Natural and Semisynthetic Plecomacrolides Suggest Distinct Pathways for HIV-1 Immune Evasion and Vacuolar ATPase-Dependent Lysosomal Acidification
Morgan McCauley, Matthew Huston, Alanna R. Condren, Filipa Pereira, Joel Cline, Marianne Yaple-Maresh, Mark M. Painter, Gretchen E. Zimmerman, Andrew W. Robertson, Nolan Carney, Christopher Goodall, Valeri Terry, Rolf Müller, David H. Sherman and Kathleen L. Collins ...
AI is a Viable Alternative to High Throughput Screening
Michigan researchers participated in a study investigating the potential of virtual screening to identify novel hits for drug discovery. This work was published in Nature Scientic Reports: AI is a viable alternative to high throughput screening - a 318-target study...
New Assay for Discovery of Novel RNA Targeting Antibacterials
Antibiotic resistance remains a pressing global concern, with most antibiotics targeting the bacterial ribosome or a limited range of proteins. One class of underexplored antibiotic targets is bacterial riboswitches, structured RNA elements that regulate key...
Accelerating Drug Discovery in Michigan
When University of Michigan (U-M) scientist Isin Cakir, Ph.D. discovered a link between an enzyme called histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6) and obesity in mice, he knew the next step in his research would be identifying molecules that could potentially block that same...
Imaging-Based Screening Identifies Modulators of the eIF3 Translation Initiation Factor Complex in Candida albicans
Katura Metzner, Matthew J. O’Meara, Benjamin Halligan, Jesse W. Wotring, Jonathan Z. Sexton, Teresa R. O’Meara Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy Vol. 67, No. 7 Publication date: June 29, 2023 https://journals.asm.org/doi/abs/10.1128/aac.00503-23?af=R Fungal...
Structural basis for control of bacterial RNA polymerase pausing by a riboswitch and its ligand
Adrien Chauvier, Jason C. Porta, Indrajit Deb, Emily Ellinger, Katarina Meze, Aaron T. Frank, Melanie D. Ohi & Nils G. Walter Nature Structural & Molecular Biology 2023 Publication date: June 01, 2023 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41594-023-01002-x Folding...
A selective small-molecule STAT5 PROTAC degrader capable of achieving tumor regression in vivo
Atsunori Kaneshige, Longchuan Bai, Mi Wang, Donna McEachern, Jennifer L. Meagher, Renqi Xu, Yu Wang, Wei Jiang, Hoda Metwally, Paul D. Kirchhoff, Lijie Zhao, Hui Jiang, Meilin Wang, Bo Wen, Duxin Sun, Jeanne A. Stuckey & Shaomeng Wang Nature Chemical Biology 2023...
Gilead Receives Rights to Exclusively License EVOQ’s NanoDisc Technology to Develop and Commercialize Immunotherapy Products for Rheumatoid Arthritis and Lupus
FOSTER CITY, Calif. & ANN ARBOR, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Gilead Sciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: GILD) and EVOQ Therapeutics, Inc. (EVOQ) today announced a collaboration and licensing agreement to advance EVOQ’s proprietary technology for the treatment of rheumatoid...
New immune target offers hope for improved heart disease treatment
A protein believed to be an indicator of cardiovascular disease may actually be what causes the ailment that results in one death every 34 seconds in the U.S, according to a recent study led by University of Michigan researchers. Past research has identified the...
U-M Researchers to Develop Open-Access Molecular Reaction Data to Speed Discovery of Drugs
Researchers can invent and test millions of molecules quickly, but to develop successful new drugs, agrochemicals and other futuristic materials, they must first synthesize the molecules—and outcomes are a gamble. To solve this problem, Timothy Cernak’s laboratory at...
Michigan Drug Discovery’s latest round has technology focus
A new round of funding from Michigan Drug Discovery is bolstering cutting-edge drug discovery technologies at the University of Michigan. The $320,000 in funding reflects MDD’s focus on securing new tools and platforms to support drug discovery research across the...
Through the lymph nodes it goes — researchers develop a cancer drug that avoids toxicities by skirting the liver
Lei Lei Wu, News Reporter, Endpoints News August 18, 2022 PI3K is a protein that is part of a pathway that regulates cell growth, survival and metabolism — earning it the inscription of master regulator for cancer. However, while a number of PI3K inhibitor...
Discovery of Novel Activators of Large-Conductance Calcium-Activated Potassium Channels for the Treatment of Cerebellar Ataxia
Sharan R. Srinivasan, Haoran Huang, Wei-Chih Chang, Joshua A. Nasburg, Hai M. Nguyen, Tim Strassmaier, Heike Wulff and Vikram G. Shakkottai Molecular Pharmacology 2022Publication Date: July 1, 2022DOI: 10.1124/molpharm.121.000478 Impaired cerebellar...
New delivery method allows slow-release of broader array of peptide drugs in the body
A new study from the University of Michigan describes one of the first entirely new drug delivery microencapsulation approaches in decades. Microencapsulation in biodegradable polymers allows drugs such as peptide therapeutics to be released over time in the body....
Drug discovery gaps can only be filled by returning to the root of medicine, says this scientist
Ashu Tripathi, Director, Natural Product Discovery Core; Research Associate Professor of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Michigan; Economic Times (India) While humans evolved over a period of approximately 6 million years, breakthroughs in modern medicine as...
Soluble CD13 induces inflammatory arthritis by activating the bradykinin receptor B1
Pei-Suen Tsou, Chenyang Lu, Mikel Gurrea-Rubio, Sei Muraoka, Phillip L. Campbell, Qi Wu, Ellen N. Model, Matthew E. Lind, Sirapa Vichaikul, Megan N. Mattichak, William D. Brodie, Jonatan L. Hervoso, Sarah Ory, Camila I. Amarista, Rida Pervez, Lucas Junginger, Mustafa...
Veralox Therapeutics Announces Favorable Results of Phase 1 Studies of VLX-1005 in Development for Treatment of Heparin-Induced Thrombocytopenia
Read the original news release here. 2022-06-13 8:30:00 ETDevelopment program for VLX-1005, a novel small molecule 12-LOX inhibitor, awarded Fast Track designation by US Food and Drug Administration Veralox Therapeutics, a biotechnology company developing...
Albumin nanoparticle containing a PI3Kγ inhibitor and paclitaxel in combination with α-PD1 induces tumor remission of breast cancer in mice
Yudong Song, Luke Bugada, Ruiting Li, Hongxiang Hu, Luchen Zhang, Chengyi Li, Hebao Yuan, Krishani Kumari Rajanayake, Nathan A. Truchan, Fei Wen, Wei Gao*, Duxin Sun** Corresponding author Science Translational Medicine 2022Publication Date: May 4, 2022DOI:...
Michigan Drug Discovery aids new projects to treat obesity, cancer
Michigan Drug Discovery will support four early-stage drug discovery projects to aid work in the Life Sciences Institute’s Center for Chemical Genomics and Natural Products Discovery Core, as well as research in the investigators’ labs. The projects will share...
Multiparameter Optimization of Oxidative Phosphorylation Inhibitors for the Treatment of Pancreatic Cancer
Ding Xue◆, Yibin Xu◆, Armita Kyani, Joyeeta Roy, Lipeng Dai, Duxin Sun, and Nouri Neamati*◆ D.X. and Y.X. contributed equally. All authors have given approval to the final version of the manuscript. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 2022Publication Date:February...
Histone deacetylase 6 inhibition restores leptin sensitivity and reduces obesity
Işın Çakır, Colleen K. Hadley, Pauline Lining Pan, Rushita A. Bagchi, Masoud Ghamari-Langroudi, Danielle T. Porter, Qiuyu Wang, Michael J. Litt, Somnath Jana, Susan Hagen, Pil Lee, Andrew White, Jiandie D. Lin, Timothy A. McKinsey & Roger D. Cone Nature...
Discovery of EEDi-5273 as an Exceptionally Potent and Orally Efficacious EED Inhibitor Capable of Achieving Complete and Persistent Tumor Regression
Rohan Kalyan Rej,◆ Changwei Wang,◆ Jianfeng Lu, Mi Wang, Elyse Petrunak, Kaitlin P. Zawacki, Donna McEachern, Chao-Yie Yang, Lu Wang, Ruiting Li, Krishnapriya Chinnaswamy, Bo Wen,* Duxin Sun, Jeanne A. Stuckey, Yunlong Zhou, Jianyong Chen, Guozhi Tang, and Shaomeng...
Morphological cell profiling of SARS-CoV-2 infection identifies drug repurposing candidates for COVID-19
Carmen Mirabelli, Jesse W. Wotring, Charles J. Zhang, Sean M. McCarty, Reid Fursmidt, Carla D. Pretto, Yuanyuan Qiao, Yuping Zhang, Tristan Frum, Namrata S. Kadambi, Anya T. Amin, Teresa R. O’Meara, Jason R. Spence, Jessie Huang, Konstantinos D. Alysandratos, Darrell...
Research to treat pain, cancer and infection gets boost from Michigan Drug Discovery
Through its annual funding program, Michigan Drug Discovery has selected five projects to fund this year, including a first-of-its-kind project grant to facilitate work on the optimization of advanced lead molecules for treating pain. Project Grants are designed to...
Professor Shaomeng Wang Inducted into the ACS Medicinal Chemistry Hall of Fame
The American Chemical Society (ACS) named Shaomeng Wang, PhD, its 2020 Division of Medicinal Chemistry Award recipient and newest Hall of Fame inductee. Prof. Wang will present his award lecture at the ACS MEDI Virtual Award Session on June 29, 2021. The Division of...
The melanocortin-3 receptor is a pharmacological target for the regulation of anorexia
Patrick Sweeney, Michelle N. Bedenbaugh, Jose Maldonado, Pauline Pan, Katelyn Fowler, Savannah Y. Williams, Luis E. Gimenez, Masoud Ghamari-Langroudi, Griffin Downing, Yijun Gui, Colleen K. Hadley, Stephen T. Joy, Anna K. Mapp, Richard B. Simerly*, Roger D. Cone*...
Michigan Drug Discovery grant program increases researcher support
Michigan Drug Discovery is adding a new grant program to its support for University of Michigan researchers. Project Grants represent the third funding opportunity to be offered by Michigan Drug Discovery, in addition to Screening Grants to support screens conducted...
Cereno Scientific obtains the right to inlicense a preclinical candidate from University of Michigan through an option agreement
Read the original press release here.This project was led by Professor Michael Holinstat in the Department of Pharmacology. 2021-03-12 11:30:00Z">FRI, MAR 12, 2021 12:30 CETCereno Scientific today announced that an option agreement has been signed with the...
Asalyxa Bio Closes Seed Financing to Advance Lead Program into First-in-Human Clinical Studies
Company's PANTHER technology platform enables selective targeted delivery of therapeutic compounds directly to neutrophils and other immune cells News provided byAsalyxa Bio; Research Bridge Partners Feb 23, 2021, 07:00 ET ANN ARBOR, Mich., Feb. 23, 2021 /PRNewswire/...
Merck agrees $1 billion deal with Debiopharm for head and neck cancer drug discovered at U-M
Read this article at Reuters. By Reuters Staff BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany’s Merck KGgA said on Monday it has agreed to pay Swiss biotech Debiopharm up to 900 million euros ($1.08 billion) to develop and commercialise Xevinapant for head and neck cancer. Under the...
Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS): Where will the drugs come from?
Peter L. Toogood,* Daniel Clauw, Sameer Phadke, David Hoffman Pharmacological Research 2021Publication Date: January 30, 2021https://doi.org/10.1021/acscentsci.0c00489 Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is a chronic debilitating disease...
Structure-based design of melanocortin 4 receptor ligands based on the SHU-9119-hMC4R cocrystal structure
Charlotte Martin, Luis E. Gimenez, Savannah Y. Williams, Yu Jing, Yiran Wu, Charlie Hollanders, Olivier Van der Poorten, Simon Gonzalez, Kevin Van holsbeeck, Santo Previti, Arthur Lamouroux, Suwen Zhao, Dirk Tourwé, Raymond C. Stevens*, Roger D. Cone*, and Steven...
Amgen ponies up $240M for Michigan discovery outfit’s dendritic cell targeting molecules for autoimmune disorders
Kyle Blankenship, Senior Editor, Endpoint News January 13, 2021 In the massive immunology market, some of pharma’s biggest players are looking for novel pathways to treat disease areas already packed with big-name drugs. Now, with an immunology blockbuster of its own...
Klatskin-Sutker Discovery Fund award supports development of novel antivirals at the LSI
December 18, 2020 In early 2020, many scientists at the University of Michigan Life Sciences Institute quickly launched new projects to improve understanding of the fundamental mechanisms underlying SARS-CoV-2 infection. One of those new research projects is now...
Ascentage Pharma Enters into an Agreement with University of Michigan to obtain an exclusive license for a MDM2 Degrader using PROTAC Technology
SUZHOU, China and ROCKVILLE, Md., Nov. 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Ascentage Pharma (6855.HK), a globally focused, clinical-stage biotechnology company engaged in developing novel therapies for cancers, chronic hepatitis B (CHB), and age-related diseases, today announced...
University of Michigan reports $1.62B in research volume during FY20
The University of Michigan Office of Research has released its Annual Report for Fiscal Year 2020. The research carried out at U-M has led to important advancements in areas ranging from the COVID-19 pandemic to driverless vehicle technology, social justice and carbon...
Great Lakes Discovery RFP open for therapeutic research proposals
Earlier this year, U-M and Deerfield Management announced the creation of Great Lakes Discovery, a new alliance to commercialize U-M therapeutic projects that hold promise in developing potentially life-saving drugs and disease treatments. Through Great Lakes...
Reinforcing the supply chain of COVID-19 therapeutics with expert-coded retrosynthetic software
Yingfu Lin, Zirong Zhang, Babak Mahjour, Di Wang, Rui Zhang, Eunjae Shim, Andrew McGrath, Yuning Shen, Nadia Brugger, Rachel Turnbull, Shashi Jasty, Sarah Trice, Tim Cernak* Preprint Read the full paper on ChemRxiv. Supply chains become stressed when demand for...
Three projects awarded funding from Michigan Drug Discovery
Three innovative drug discovery projects targeting cancer, fungal infection and vision loss are moving forward at the University of Michigan with early-stage funding from Michigan Drug Discovery. “We are excited to help advance these important projects in diverse...
Deerfield commits up to $130M to commercialize drug discovery at the University of Michigan
ANN ARBOR—A new partnership between the University of Michigan and health care investment firm Deerfield Management Co. will create a company to commercialize therapeutic projects that hold promise in solving unmet medical needs. U-M and Deerfield on Wednesday...
Remdesivir: A Review of Its Discovery and Development Leading to Emergency Use Authorization for Treatment of COVID-19
Richard T. Eastman, Jacob S. Roth, Kyle R. Brimacombe, Anton Simeonov, Min Shen, Samarjit Patnaik, and Matthew D. Hall* ACS Cent. Sci. 2020Publication Date: May 4, 2020https://doi.org/10.1021/acscentsci.0c00489 The global pandemic of SARS-CoV-2, the causative viral...
FDA Issues Emergency Use Authorization for Potential COVID-19 Treatment
FDA News Release For immediate release: May 01, 2020 Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization for the investigational antiviral drug remdesivir for the treatment of suspected or laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 in adults and...
Milken Institute: COVID-19 Treatment and Vaccine Tracker
This information is sourced from: https://milkeninstitute.org/covid-19-tracker. The Milken Institute is currently tracking the development of treatments and vaccines for COVID-19 (coronavirus). This document contains an aggregation of publicly-available information...
Research and Development on Therapeutic Agents and Vaccines for COVID-19 and Related Human Coronavirus Diseases
Cynthia Liu*, Qiongqiong Zhou, Yingzhu Li, Linda V. Garner, Steve P. Watkins, Linda J. Carter, Jeffrey Smoot, Anne C. Gregg, Angela D. Daniels, Susan Jervey, Dana AlbaiuACS Cent. Sci. 2020, 6, 3, 315–331DOI: 10.1021/acscentsci.0c00272 Since the outbreak of the novel...
Can old drugs take down a new coronavirus?
Lisa M. JarvisMARCH 12, 2020 When any new virus emerges, drug and vaccine developers spring into action, searching for products to stop it in its tracks. Drug discovery campaigns launch, vaccine development efforts ramp up, and everyone mobilizes to get it all into...