Last week marked a major milestone in small-molecule drug discovery with the first FDA approval of a proteolysis targeting chimera (PROTAC). After a modest but successful phase 3 clinical trial demonstrated a 2.9 month improvement in median progression free survival1 for a type of advanced breast cancer1, the FDA has approved Veppanu (vepdegestrant), co-developed by Arvinas and Pfizer, as the first PROTAC protein degrader therapy2. So what is a PROTAC?
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Curiosity might not kill the cat
Unlike most members of OPIG, I don’t work on small molecules, antibodies, or protein structure; I use hypergraph representations of protein complexes to predict gene essentiality and drug targets. I have also had an unconventional route to get here, and on the way, discovered my love for learning and research.
Friends and family had noticed I jumped around with my interests, so much so that when we used to meet up, they took great delight in teasing me about what my current adventure was – ‘you don’t settle do you!’, ‘when are you going to find what you’re looking for?’, ‘why can’t you just stick to something’. Looking back, there was a pattern, I just couldn’t see it yet.
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