B01
Project Area B - Chemical Biology
Developing chemical tools for investigating cell state transitions
This project deals with the development of chemical tools for deciphering molecular mechanisms of cell state transitions. In subproject 1, we will investigate chemical strategies to achieve targeted protein degradation, e.g. by the design and synthesis of chemically novel PROTACs. These studies will include the development of new E3 ubiquitin ligase recruiting units. In subproject 2, we will generate small molecule tools for acute perturbation of the metastatic switch. To this end, we will explore structure-activity relationships as well as the biological scope and selectivity of established inhibitors of metastasis. In the long term, these studies should result in the development of novel anticancer agents with complementary bioactivities to current chemotherapeutics.