Join us on 18 November to learn about the latest technology to accelerate the design of cancer treatments

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The orphan citron rho-interacting kinase (CITK) is a protein that plays a fundamental role in cell division and, consequentially, is promising for potential cancer drugs like proteolysis targeting chimeras (PROTACs), which could destroy these problem proteins. Researchers at the Cleveland Clinic Center for Therapeutics Discovery recently developed C3TD879, an inhibitor molecule developed specifically to block CITK’s activity.

While this is a promising first step in developing an effective PROTAC to fight cancer, simply inhibiting CITK’s activity didn’t fully replicate what happens when CITK was genetically deleted in previous experiments. This suggests that CITK could have additional, non-enzymatic roles in cell division and highlights the importance of trial-and-error in developing PROTACs.

In this webinar, our expert guests will demonstrate their solution for PROTAC drug discovery: the QuicTPD™ ‘direct-to-biology’ platform. The platform uses a high-throughput 96-well plate system to speed up the entire process of making and testing PROTACs – from chemical design to biological evaluation.

During this session, you will learn about topics including:

  • The dual catalytic and scaffolding functions of multidomain proteins, especially kinases
  • The importance of shotgun direct-to-biology approaches as a rapid strategy for PROTAC lead ID where predictive algorithms for selecting a partner E3 and linker geometry are still not confident enough for routine use
  • How to establish a robust testing funnel prior to embarking on synthesis of PROTACs, particularly with respect to NanoBRET assays as well as HiBiT-tagged cell lines

To aid accessibility, automatically generated closed captions, which can be turned on and off at your leisure, will be available to all those attending live. Please note, a certificate of attendance will be provided soon after the event. You do not need to request this – only those who attend the webinar live will be eligible.

Shaun R Stauffer

Portrait of Shaun Stauffer, director for the Center for Therapeutics Discovery, Cleveland Clinic Research

Shaun R Stauffer is director for the Cleveland Clinic Center for Therapeutics Discovery (C3TD) which he founded in 2018. He obtained his PhD in organic chemistry in 1999 from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, US. He then completed an NIH post-doctoral fellowship at Yale University with John Hartwig before joining Merck & Co. in 2001. In 2008 Shaun was recruited to Vanderbilt University where he helped build and led several discovery programs. He is a co-author on over 100 peer reviewed publications and has 34 issued US patents. At C3TD Shaun’s team develops high quality small molecule probes and first-in-class candidates with collaborators at the Cleveland Clinic.

 

Hugo Matos Viana

Portrait of Hugo Viana, Global Product Manager, Chemical Biology Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany

Hugo Matos Viana is the global product manager for chemical biology at Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, since 2023. He holds a PhD in organic chemistry (University of Évora/Max Planck, 2016) on catalytic intramolecular arylation and an Executive MBA from Porto Business School (2024).

With 13+ years in life Sciences, biotech and health-tech, he has publications and a patent. Hugo spearheads the development and execution of the global chemical biology product strategy, focusing on market analysis, competitive insights and product positioning.

 

Event details and registration

Register now