Stabilizers of the interaction between 14-3-3 and hDM2 and hDMX

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Transient protein-protein interactions (PPIs) control all cellular processes relevant to health and disease. Selective modulation of individual PPIs would thus facilitate both a greater understanding of biological mechanisms and provide new opportunities for therapeutic intervention. p53 is a critical tumour suppressor involved in DNA repair, inhibition of cell proliferation and cell cycle regulation. P53 is negatively regulated through interaction with hDM2 and/or hDMX. These proteins regulate localization of p53, physically block its interaction with DNA and act in concert to effect p53 degradation through ubiquitination and subsequent proteolytic degradation. In turn hDM2 and hDMX function is regulated through phosphorylation dependent interaction with the adaptor protein 14-3-3. Given that hDM2 and hDMX are overexpressed in numerous cancers, the p53/hDM2(X) interaction has received considerable attention as a drug-discovery target. This PhD project will pursue an alternative approach to target the oncogenic p53 pathway by identification and optimization of stabilizers of hDM2/14-3-3 and hDMX/14-3-3. The project will exploit our toolkit of enabling drug discovery capabilities, in house crystallographic and biophysical data on the nature of the hDM2/14-3-3 and hDMX/14-3-3 interactions together with hit matter identified from conventional screening and dynamic fragment ligation experiments. A range of methods appropriate to the target will be employed including: computational prediction, peptide chemistry, small-molecule synthesis, screening technologies, biophysics and structural-molecular biology. As a collaborative CASE studentship with AstraZeneca, a research placement in Gothenburg will form part of the studentship. This will allow the design, synthesis and testing of candidate PPI stabilizers to discover selective and cell-permeable modulators.