Molecular degraders for respiratory virus infection
Supervisors:
Dr Adam Fletcher, School of Infection and Immunity
Dr David France, School of Chemistry
Summary:
Respiratory virus infections cause significant socioeconomic and medical burden in the UK each year. Medicines effective against respiratory virus infections remain insufficient to provide long-term control. This project will leverage the advances in targeted protein degradation (TPD) to equip an early career researcher with a cross-disciplinary toolkit in the design, synthesis and experimental testing of novel PROTAC drugs against two seasonal coronaviruses – SARS-CoV-2 and HCoV-OC43. The project will also explore the application of two novel degrader enzymes in TPD, by testing their ability to degrade a panel of viral and cellular proteins. Finally, the project will set the stage for future funding by screening for novel small molecule binders of these degrader enzymes, by employing a small molecule screen (4.2 bn compounds) to identify novel binders of these degraders, in a prelude to the design of novel antiviral therapies.