Lecture
Reedijk Symposium 2022: Activity-based proteomics – target and ligand discovery on a global scale
- Date
- Friday 28 October 2022
- Time
- Location
- Gorlaeus Lecture Hall Building (collegezalengebouw), Einsteinweg 57
- Room
- Lecture Hall 1
Abstract
Advances in DNA sequencing have radically accelerated our understanding of the genetic basis of human disease. However, many of human genes encode proteins that remain uncharacterized and lack selective small-molecule probes. The functional annotation of these proteins should enrich our knowledge of the biochemical pathways that support human physiology and disease, as well as lead to the discovery of new therapeutic targets. To address these problems, we have introduced chemical proteomic technologies that globally profile the functional state of proteins in native biological systems. Prominent among these methods is activity-based protein profiling (ABPP), which utilizes chemical probes to map the activity state of large numbers of proteins in parallel. In this lecture, I will describe the application of ABPP to discover and functionally annotate proteins that contribute to human diseases, such as cancer and immunology.
I will also discuss the generation and implementation of advanced ABPP platforms for proteome-wide ligand discovery and how the integration of these global ‘ligandability’ maps with phenotypic screening and function-first assays can expand the druggable fraction of the human proteome for basic and translational research objectives.
Biography
Benjamin F. Cravatt, Ph.D., is a the Gilula Chair of Chemical Biology and Professor in the Department of Chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute. His research group develops and applies chemical proteomic technologies for protein and drug discovery on a global scale and has particular interest in studying biochemical pathways in the nervous system and cancer. Dr. Cravatt is a co-founder of Activx Biosciences (acquired by Kyorin Pharmaceuticals), Abide Therapeutics (acquired by Lundbeck Pharmaceuticals), and Vividion Therapeutics. His honors include a Wolf Prize in Chemistry, a Searle Scholar Award, the Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry, a Cope Scholar Award, the ASBMB Merck Award, the Royal Society of Chemistry Jeremy Knowles Award, and memberships in the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Medicine, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Ben obtained his undergraduate education at Stanford University, receiving a B.S. in the Biological Sciences and a B.A. in History. He then received a Ph.D. from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) in 1996, and joined the faculty at TSRI in 1997.