News

Two new papers out! Check this out to know more about them! Our new paper ‘Leveraging dual-ligase recruitment to enhance degradation via a heterotrivalent PROTAC’ which spearheaded by former lab member Adam Bond, along with our collaborators Miquel Muñoz I…

We are excited to share our latest publication on the development of the first SOCS2 inhibitors | Just out in Nature Communications Our lab has worked relentlessly over many many years to develop phosphotyrosine-based covalent ligands of the E3 ligase SOCS2…

The 17th EFMC Short Course on Medicinal Chemistry on Small Molecule Protein Degraders Graphical Abstract The 17th EFMC Short Course on Medicinal Chemistry this year focused on Small Molecule Protein Degraders, and the opportunities and challenges that they present as a novel…

Alessio was giving one of the plenary lectures at the IMPRS-LM Student Symposium

We are happy to share our new publication on the structure-guided improvement of our von Hippel–Lindau (VHL) inhibitors | Just out ASAP in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry We design a new di-Methyl analogue of VH101 (cmpnd 30) and qualify it as…

The University of Dundee has been named the UK’s best for supporting spinout businesses, according to industry-leading analysis. The University of Dundee has been named the UK’s best for supporting spinout businesses, according to industry-leading analysis by  Octopus Ventures. Companies…

The University of Dundee has been named the UK’s best for supporting spinout businesses, according to industry-leading analysis. The University of Dundee has been named the UK’s best for supporting spinout businesses, according to industry-leading analysis by  Octopus Ventures. Companies…

‘Accelerating Drug Discovery’ – Braemar Summit 2023 A prestigious audience of policy makers, entrepreneurs and scientists from across the UK will hear about Dundee’s world-leading expertise in drug discovery at next month’s Braemar Summit. Dundee is the partner university of…

This Tuesday, Daniel Johnson MSP visited the Centre. The visit went extremely well where Daniel and his colleagues asked Alessio lots of questions about the research!

The Centre for Targeted Protein Degradation (CeTPD) is a new facility in the University of Dundee’s life sciences complex, housing world class research in targeted protein degradation. We are home to ~70 researchers and staff and have research in many…

We are excited to share our new review on Proximity-Based Modalities for Biology and Medicine | Just out ASAP in ACS Central Science Xingui and Alessio delve into various modes of action being pursued, not just PROTACs and molecular glue degraders but…

The AC-Almirall team welcomed their collaborators from Barcelona for their first visit to Dundee over Monday and Tuesday this week. Their visit included stimulating scientific discussions in team meetings, scientific updates and a JSC. Following in the footsteps of the…

Hirotake Furihata and Kevin Haubrich attended the CCPN meeting in Glasgow, where they both presented posters and Kevin gave a talk on “19F NMR for drug design of E3 ligase ligands and PROTACs”.

On Monday we welcomed John Spencer. Alessio, Will Farnaby, Vesna Vetma & Andy McGown (John’s post doc who is visiting us this summer) took him out for dinner at Manchurian. John shared “Amazing time up in Dundee, where Andy, my…

Alessio travelled to Sweden to Tallberg, to join the 26th Swedish Conference on Macromolecular Structure and Function to give one of the Keynote lectures there. The meeting was held at the Hotel Akerbladz, exactly 15 years after attending a different…

Maria Rodriguez-Rios attended the SEQT IX Young Researcher Symposium in Santiago de Compostela last week where she presented a poster on her BromoTag work.  “It has been a really interesting meeting, organised by and focused on early career researchers. It was…

Will Farnaby delivered a workshop on how to design and profile targeted protein degraders at the annual med chem summer school organised by the Spanish society of medicinal chemistry (SEQT). The event was held in Santiago De Campostela and attended…

Dylan Lynch and Kevin Haubrich both attended the annual EUbOPEN Leiden Meeting this week and Dylan was giving a talk on”Hijacking SOCS2 with Phosphotyrosine-based Ligands”

Alessio Ciulli and Conner Craigon attended the first Gordon Research Conference on Chromatin Modifications in Health and Disease organized by Tom Muir (Princeton) and Tatiana Kutateladze (Univ Colorado) as Chairs, hosted at Bryant University in Rhode island, USA. At the…

Vesna and Claudia attending Discovery Europe 2023 at Berlin.  Claudia shared a short message about the conference – “It has been really interesting to participate in the Discovery Europe Conference in Berlin together with Vesna Vetma and learn what people in the industry are up…

We had a great time welcoming Chrisitna Woo from Harvard to visit us in Dundee as a CeTPD Seminar Series speaker and as part of that she was giving a SLS-wide seminar on her exciting chemical biology research targeting protein…

Claudia was giving a talk at Keystone Hypoxia conference in Killarney.  “Participating in this conference was a mind broadening experience. I really enjoyed learning of the many different aspects of hypoxia research and the mindset of sharing and openly discussing ongoing…

Some of our team were out in Barcelona for the event on Proximity-inducing pharmacology: Targeted protein degradation and beyond. Will Farnaby, Alessio Ciulli and Angus Cowan were speaking during the first session. Ollie, Alena and Mark were presenting for the…

Vincenzo D’Angiolella, Associate Professor at the Oxford Institute for Radiation Oncology was visiting CeTPD on 26th May, giving the talk Modulation of E3 ubiquitin ligase activity in cell cycle and cancer: classical oscillations and neomorphic mutations” Organisers for this visit…

The CeTPD Outreach team organised Menzieshill Community Centre on 22nd May, we’d like to congratulate them for doing so well. Lovely words from our visitors: “Oh wonderful, just wonderful!”“I can’t wait to tell my nephew about this visit, he will…

Congratulations to Alexandra Harris on successfully defending her MRes viva. The examiners Rebecca Goss (external) and Ian Gilbert (internal) commended Lexie for an excellent viva exam, and for doing some beautiful synthesis work that enabled the development of a powerful…

Alessio and Suzanne  organised the 17th EFMC Short Course on Medicinal Chemistry: Small Molecule Protein Degraders: A New Opportunity for Drug Design and Development in the Netherlands.  The three day course covered an intro to PROTACs and molecular glues from…

Last week, Alessio took a trip to the US, he firstly visit the University of Michigan,thanks to Shaomeng Wang and his whole group for fantastic hosting, dining, and it was fun to be sharing a round of golf too ⛳️.…

CeTPD celebrate the success of our continued partnership with Boehringer Ingelheim. This week, we host  collaborators from  Boehringer Ingelheim in our new centre, to celebrate the success of our continued partnership. Together since 2016 to innovate PROTAC drug discovery.

The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE), Scotland’s National Academy, has announced its 2023 intake of Fellows, with 91 names representing science, arts, business, sports, civil society and academia from across Scotland and beyond. Read the full article on RSE website

CeTPD Outreach carried out our first centre-focussed activities with the general public at the “Family Fun with Women in STEM” 10:00-12:30 on the 11th March, 2023, at the ScrapAntics in the Wellgate Shopping Centre, Dundee.  Great work Selma, Sohini, Suzanne, Darren,…

On the Tuesday 21st of March, we had Dr Claudia Cavalluzzo, originally a Chemist, now the Executive Director of Converge, visit the Centre and gave a lunchtime seminar on “The Science of Entrepreneurship”. Converge is a key player in the…

We had the opportunity to visit The Scottish Parliament today as part of a Universities Scotland reception showcasing the economic impact of universities.  A drinks reception was hosted by Universities Scotland to highlight universities’ contribution to economic transformation as framed…

Our centre moved to the new home at 1 James Lindsay Place on 9th Jan 2023. Twitter Signage is up Moving in

Investment raises hopes of new dementia treatments University of Dundee spinout Amphista Therapeutics has received a boost in its efforts to develop new drugs for neurogenerative diseases such as dementia. The Dementia Discovery Fund (DDF) has made an unspecified Series…

A successful collaboration between the University of Dundee and pharmaceutical company Eisai Co Ltd aiming to create innovative new cancer drugs has been extended for a further three years. A successful collaboration between the University of Dundee and pharmaceutical company…

On 24th November the University of Dundee hosted a highly productive visit by a delegation from UKRI, including their Chief Executive, Professor Dame Ottoline Leyser and the Executive Chair of MRC Professor John Iredale, see UKRI news for more information about the whole…

An international collaboration, featuring scientists from the University of Dundee, has made a breakthrough they hope will help futureproof a revolutionary new field of drug discovery by preventing resistance in cancer therapy. An international collaboration, featuring scientists from the University…

Scientists have designed a novel molecule capable of destroying an as-yet undruggable cancer-causing protein – and are making it available for researchers around the world to use in their own work, free of charge. *A molecule capable of destroying a…

A research publication by Tasuku Ishida and Alessio Ciulli has been named one of the 2021 SLAS Readers Choice Award winners. The annual awards from the Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS) honour articles and authors from 2021 published…

Spinout named a ‘Fierce 15’ Biotech Companies of 2022 University of Dundee spinout Amphista Therapeutics has been designated as one of the world’s most promising biotechnology companies. University of Dundee spinout Amphista Therapeutics has been designated as one of the…

Researchers from the University of Dundee have discovered a small molecule that helps to eliminate a Parkinson’s disease-causing protein.  Parkinson’s disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder affecting more than 10 million people worldwide. No cure is available and current treatment…

Now published in Chemical Society Reviews: Claudia & Alessio’s review on VHL ligands and their use as VHL inhibitors and in PROTAC degraders. Read the full article open access. Authors: Claudia J. Diehl, Alessio Ciulli* Title: Discovery of small molecule…

The University of Dundee and Bio-Techne, a global life sciences company providing innovative tools and bioactive reagents, will partner to commercialise technology developed at Dundee that enhances the understanding of undruggable diseases. Bio-Techne has signed an exclusive licencing agreement to…

Early career researchers in the School have received support from the Scottish Universities Life Sciences Alliance (SULSA) to establish new life sciences networks by providing funds towards the running of a network event. Valentina Spiteri, Charlotte Crowe, and Mark Nakasone,…

Professor Alessio Ciulli has been awarded a European Federation for Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Biology Awards 2022. He has been named the winner of the 2022 Prous Institute – Overton and Meyer Award for New Technologies in Drug Discovery. This…

University of Dundee spinout Amphista Therapeutics will work with global biopharmaceutical companies as part of strategic collaborations potentially worth more than $2 billion. As part of separate partnerships, Amphista will collaborate with Merck Healthcare and Bristol Myers Squibb to leverage…

Dr Xingui Liu has been awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship to undertake research in the lab of Professor Alessio Ciulli in the newly established Centre for Targeted Protein Degradation (CeTPD). Dr Xingui Liu has been awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship…

Targeted protein degradation (TPD) is an innovative field that is revolutionising drug development, with various modalities being explored by researchers to tackle undruggable targets and treat a wide range of diseases, including cancer, neurological disorders, and skin diseases. In this…

Tom & Conner’s review on Targeting Epigenetic Modulators Using PROTAC Degraders is now published in BMCL Great review article by Tom and Conner   Read the full article. Authors: Thomas Webb, Conner Craigon, Alessio Ciulli* Title: Targeting Epigenetic Modulators Using PROTAC Degraders: Current Status…

Angus & Alessio’s review on E3 Ligase Substrate Specificity for Targeted Protein Degradation Authors: Angus D. Cowan, Alessio Ciulli* Title: Driving E3 Ligase Substrate Specificity for Targeted Protein Degradation: Lessons from Nature and the Laboratory Abstract Methods to direct the…

William Farnaby has been appointed as Principal Investigator within the newly formed Centre for Targeted Protein Degradation (CeTPD). Will’s research will innovate chemical approaches to discover and develop molecules that can probe new ways of addressing disease. There will be…

Xingui & Alessio’s News & Views article titled “DUB be good to me” is now published in Nat Chem Biol. Read the News & Views article on Nature Chemical Biology website. The title was inspired from Beats International’s song back in 1990…

Last year a new translational research centre was established to bolster the University of Dundee’s drug discovery position. The Centre for Targeted Protein Degradation (CeTPD) would allow Professor Alessio Ciulli and colleagues to expand their pioneering work in an area that has attracted billions…

Innovator of the Year is for any member or team within SLS that demonstrably achieved scientific, technical or commercial innovation that came to fruition in 2021. It has two categories, Best Innovation and Best Early-Stage Business Idea. The Best Early-Stage…

The group held their 1st Annual CeTPD Christmas Retreat on the 25th of November at Piperdam Leisure Resort. The evening was not only a party  but also a chance to take stock of how far we’ve come this last year,…

LTDD 2021 LinkedIn lead ben post graphic, featuring A best in class method to quantify target engagement and cellular entry for PROTACs, presented by James Vasta Researchers from the University of Dundee and Promega Corporation have shown how a “three-headed…

Scientists at the University of Dundee have developed a new technology that provides a greater understanding into the biology of ‘undruggable’ diseases. Cells are composed of thousands of interacting proteins and their malfunction is a primary mechanism of disease development.…

Great collaboration with Danette Daniels’s group at Promega!  Read the Open Access full article. Read the UoD News article: “Three heads are better than two in drug discovery concept“ Authors: Satomi Imaide, Kristin M. Riching, Nikolai Makukhin, Vesna Vetma, Claire Whitworth, Scott J.…

Congratulations to Angus and Claudia for being awarded Marie Sklodowka-Curie Individual Fellowships! These prestigious Fellowships will enable Angus and Claudia to take forward their postdoctoral research and projects in the group. 

Great work by Adam and Conner in this work collaboration with Scott Lokey’s Lab!  Read the Open Access full article. Authors: Victoria G. Klein, Adam G. Bond, Conner Craigon, R. Scott Lokey*, and Alessio Ciulli* Title: Amide-to-Ester Substitution as a Strategy for Optimizing PROTAC Permeability…

The University of Dundee is one of the best universities in the UK for producing successful spinouts, according to a new report. Read full press release on the University of Dundee website. Related links UoD PR: Dundee ranked top 6…

Our beginner’s guide to PROTACs and targeted protein degradation is now out in The Biochemist. Read the full article open access. Authors: Alessio Ciulli* and Nicole Trainor Title: A beginner’s guide to PROTACs and targeted protein degradation Summary PROTACs are…

The expansion of an exemplary industry-academia collaboration will see the University of Dundee, in partnership with Boehringer Ingelheim, intensify its efforts to develop new medicines that target and destroy key cancer-causing proteins, which have previously been regarded as undruggable. Dundee…

New preprint: Estimating the cooperativity of PROTAC-induced ternary complexes using 19F NMR displacement assay Great work by Gugi. Read the pre-print article Authors: Guilherme Castro, Alessio Ciulli* Title: Estimating the cooperativity of PROTAC-induced ternary complexes using 19F NMR displacement assay Abstract Cooperativity…

Amide-to-ester substitution as a strategy for optimizing PROTAC permeability and cellular activity. Great work by Adam, Conner, and Tori Klein from Scott Lokey’s lab. Read the pre-print article. Authors: Klein, V.G., Bond, A.G, Craigon, C., Lokey, R.S., Ciulli, A.* Title:…

A new translational research centre will bolster the University of Dundee’s world-leading position in a field that is revolutionising drug discovery, while helping to facilitate the development of high growth companies and create skilled jobs. A new translational research centre…

Will and Manfred’s review on the present and future of PROTACs for cancer therapy is now out in Current Opinion in Pharmacology Read the full article. Authors: William Farnaby*, Manfred Koegl*, Darryl B. McConnell, Alessio Ciulli Title: Transforming targeted cancer…

Amphista Therapeutics, a University of Dundee spinout company, has announced a near-£40 million investment that will further its work to develop new drugs for a range of diseases. Amphista is a biopharmaceutical company creating first-in-class therapeutics that harness the body’s…

Amphista Therapeutics, the spin out company from the lab of Professor Alessio Ciulli, was awarded the ‘Financing Deal of the Year’ award 2021 at the Scrip Awards last month. This was in recognition of their $53M Series B funding. The…

Our review on building and hijacking ubiquitination machineries by PROTACs and glues is now out in Current Opinion in Structural Biology Congratulations to Sarath on this review article. We hope people will find it useful! Read the Open Access full…

Our review covering E3 ligase ligands for PROTACs is now published in SLAS Discovery Congratulations to Tasuku on this article. We hope people will find this review useful! Read the Open Access full article. Authors: Tasuku Ishida and Alessio Ciulli*…

Our review on synthetic medicinal chemistry of phosphotyrosine analogues and phosphomimetics is now published in RSC Medicinal Chemistry. Congratulations to Nikolai on this comprehensive timely review. Hope people find this useful!  Read the Open Access full article. Authors: Nikolai Makukhin…

Introducing BromoTAG and AGB1: our new inducible degron system for potent, rapid, selective protein degradation Great work by Adam and Conner, who led chemistry and biology on this study, and in collaboration with Dario Alessi’s group!  Read the Open Access full article. Authors: Adam G.…

Our paper on the stereoselective synthesis of bumped BET bromodomain ligands has been selected for the front cover of Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry, Issue 38! The cover image was designed by Jagoda Sadowska, Alessio Ciulli and Adam Bond, and produced by Jagoda…

Well done to David – great job on this chapter! Read the chapter. Authors: David Zollman, Alessio Ciulli* Title: Structural and Biophysical Principles of Degrader Ternary Complexes Abstract Small-molecule degraders are a revolutionary modality of pharmacological intervention in chemical biology…

This new collaboration between Almirall and the group of Prof. Alessio Ciulli at Dundee University aims to discover and develop a class of small-molecule degrader drugs as a novel therapeutic paradigm to treat inflammatory skin diseases with unmet medical needs. …

Almost twenty years after deciphering the human genome, our understanding of human disease is still far from complete. One of the most powerful and versatile tools to better understand biology and disease-relevant processes are well-characterized small chemical modulators of protein…

Our new paper describing stereoselective syntheses of allele-selective BET inhibitors bumped-JQ1 is now out in the RSC journal Org. Biomol. Chem. Congratulations to Adam and Andrea, on their development of this new route to synthesise the compounds!   Read the Open…

Our review on probing epigenetic reader domains with chemical biology is now published in Current Opinion in Chemical Biologyfor website. Congratulations to Alessandra Cipriano, well done! Alessandra was a visiting PhD student with us, from Gianluca Sbardella’s group at the University of…

Our collaborative work on PROTAC structure-permeability relationships is now published in ACS Med Chem Lett. Title: Understanding and Improving the Membrane Permeability of VH032-Based PROTACs Authors: Victoria G. Klein, Chad E. Townsend, Andrea Testa, Michael Zengerle, Chiara Maniaci, Scott J.…

Claire and Alessio’s News & Views story on Carolyn Bertozzi’s group work on LYTACs is now published in Nature Title: Protein degraders extend their reach Authors: Claire Whitworth, Alessio Ciulli Molecules have previously been made that induce protein destruction inside…

Our collaboration with the Sapkota and Ganley Labs is now published in Cell Chemical Biology. Highlights Ligand (L)-inducible AdPROM consists of Halo conjugated to a target protein binder Target protein is degraded with HaloPROTAC in cells expressing L-AdPROM construct HaloPROTAC-mediated…

Completion of our University of Dundee spin-off new-co Amphista therapeutics’s Series A investment announced today. Great news and congratulations to the whole team for this achievement! Read more on Twitter Related links University of Dundee Press Release: Funding success for University…

Read the University of Dundee’s feature story: Collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim: A world-changing idea: the development a completely new class of drugs with the potential to “drug the undruggable”

Our dual Brd7/9 PROTAC degrader VZ185 is now available for free on Boehringer Ingelheim portal OpnMe.com Go on OpnMe.com to order VZ185 for free, and start your research now! Related links OpnMe entry: BRD7/BRD9 PROTAC | VZ185 University of Dundee and Boehringer…

Check our latest paper published in Angewandte. Closing the circle: A macrocyclic PROTAC has been designed and synthesized by adding a cyclizing linker to MZ1, a PROTAC targeting the bromodomain of the BET protein, Brd4. A co‐crystal structure of macroPROTAC‐1…

School of Life Science’s Professor Alessio Ciulli was amongst a selected group of world’s leading expert scientists and key opinion leaders who spoke at the Galien Forum on October 24, 2019, at the Alexandria Center in New York City. Alessio’s…