A Chemoproteomic Atlas of the Human Purine Interactome for Regioselective Ligand Discovery Purines are essential bioactive molecules that interact with a large fraction of the human proteome. Despite their importance, the scope of actionable purine-binding pockets for ligand discovery remai...

Congrats to Zhihong Li for leading the development of SuPUR chemistry — a chemoproteomics platform mapping 31K+ reactive Tyr/Lys sites across the human proteome.
SuPUR revealed an ACAT2-Y237 ligand uncovering a cancer metabolic vulnerability.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

22.10.2025 12:39 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

A Glutathione S-Transferase Pi Molecular Glue Tethers Splicing Factors and Remodels Cell Metabolism Here, we discovered a tyrosine-reactive GSTP1 inhibitor can function as a molecular glue via a ligand induced protein tethering (LIPT) mechanism. Electrophilic modification of GSTP1 results in disulfide tethering of protein complexes in live cells, and these protein–protein interactions (PPIs) can be reversed using reducing agents. A substantial fraction of GSTP1 tethered interactions represent neo-PPIs that were enriched for splicing factors and nuclear proteins as determined by immunopurification mass spectrometry. LIPT colocalized GSTP1 with serine/arginine repetitive matrix protein 1 (SRRM1), resulting in its redistribution from nuclear speckles to cytoplasmic foci. Cancer cells with enhanced sensitivity to LIPT showed downregulation of metabolic proteins that led to altered lipid metabolism and reduced cell proliferation from GSTP1 molecular glue treatment. Collectively, we show covalent molecular glues of GSTP1 can alter localization of disulfide tethered binding partners and disrupt metabolism in cancer cells.

Congrats to my graduate student Dave Leace and team on the new paper! They discovered a ligand-induced protein tethering (LIPT) molecular glue mechanism — revealing new PPIs, altered protein localization, and disrupted cancer metabolism. pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....

26.09.2025 12:45 — 👍 2    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

Advancing Covalent Ligand and Drug Discovery beyond Cysteine Targeting intractable proteins remains a key challenge in drug discovery, as these proteins often lack well-defined binding pockets or possess shallow surfaces not readily addressed by traditional dru...

Happy to share our review on the exciting frontier of covalent chemistry aimed at non-cysteine residues — expanding the toolbox for ligand discovery and chemical biology. Congrats to Gibae Kim from my group!
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

23.05.2025 00:44 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Human PTGR2 Inactivation Alters Eicosanoid Metabolism and Cytokine Response of Inflammatory Macrophages Prostaglandin reductase 2 (PTGR2) regulates inflammatory lipid signaling through the metabolism of the PGE2 metabolite 15-keto-PGE2. PTGR2 inhibitors have been reported but whether small molecule inac...

Human PTGR2 Inactivation Alters Eicosanoid Metabolism and Cytokine Response of Inflammatory Macrophages | ACS Chemical Biology pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....

19.05.2025 19:37 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Discovery and Optimization of a Covalent AKR1C3 Inhibitor Aldo-keto reductase family 1 member C3 (AKR1C3) is a member of the AKR superfamily of enzymes that metabolize androgen, estrogen, and prostaglandin substrates that drive proliferation in hormone-dependent cancers. Interest in developing selective inhibitors has produced tool compounds for the inactivation or degradation of AKR1C3 with varying degrees of selectivity among the 14 known AKR proteins. Selectivity of AKR1C3 inhibitors across the AKR family is critical since a clinical candidate failed due to hepatotoxicity from off-target inhibition of AKR1D1. Here, we report development of a sulfonyl-triazole (SuTEx) covalent AKR1C3 inhibitor (RJG-2051) that selectively engages a noncatalytic tyrosine residue (Y24) on AKR1C3. Importantly, RJG-2051 exhibited negligible cross-reactivity with AKRs or other proteins across 1800+ tyrosine and lysine sites quantified by chemical proteomics. Our disclosure of a covalent inhibitor for potent AKR1C3 inactivation with proteome-wide selectivity in cells will expedite cell biological studies for testing the therapeutic potential of this metabolic target.

Thrilled to share our new covalent AKR1C3 inhibitor targeting a non-catalytic tyrosine (Y24) with proteome-wide selectivity! An enabling tool for probing metabolism in hormone-driven cancers.
Big congrats to Justin Grams from my team!

pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....

25.04.2025 14:44 — 👍 1    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0