Oxford Events, the new replacement for OxTalks, will launch on 16th March. The two-week OxTalks freeze period starts on Monday 2nd March. During this time, there will be no facility to publish or edit events. The existing OxTalks site will remain available to view during this period. Once Oxford Events launches, you will need a Halo login to submit events. Full details are available on the Staff Gateway.
Post-translational modifications composed of ubiquitin regulate a wide range of cellular functions and are tightly controlled by deubiquitinating enzymes (DUBs). The recent start of clinical trials with inhibitors of two DUBs highlights the therapeutic potential of their modulation in cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. However, how DUBs decode ubiquitin signals and how they are engaged by small molecule ligands remain poorly understood at the molecular level. My group uses an integrated chemical and structural biology approach to shed light on how DUBs function and how they can be specifically inhibited. In my talk, I will discuss recently published and unpublished projects: I will focus on how protein-based probes have enabled the discovery of novel activities in DUBs. Moreover, I will cover how a chimeric protein engineering approached revealed how the mitophagy-regulating DUB USP30 can be specifically inhibited and how this provided a framework for specific DUB inhibition.
