Christopher Veeck

This work proves that targeted protein degradation can go beyond enzymatic targets—opening up new viral proteins and ligands for therapeutic intervention. A promising step forward for antiviral PROTACs.

We show that inactive ligands, binding outside of catalytic pockets, can still serve as potent warheads—expanding the antiviral degrader design space to new viral targets.

Our lead compound, LLP019, robustly degraded Mpro in a cereblon-dependent manner and significantly reduced viral titers—despite its warhead being inactive as an inhibitor. Consequently, degradation, not inhibition, drove the antiviral effect.

We redesigned pelitinib, an allosteric binder of SARS-CoV-2 Mpro, to create a series of degraders—leveraging its binding mode to go beyond conventional targeting of catalytic clefts.

We asked: can ligands that bind outside—or in absence of—a catalytic cleft act as warheads for antiviral PROTACs? Until now, most such degraders targeted active sites. We set out to challenge that paradigm.

Discovery of an Antiviral PROTAC Targeting the SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease Using an Allosteric Warhead Targeted protein degradation represents a new paradigm in drug development. By hijacking the cellular ubiquitin-proteasome-system pathogenic proteins are degraded via heterobifunctional molecules, ref...

Just dropped our new preprint on bioRxiv. I’m incredibly proud of this manuscript, which explores a novel application of PROTACs as antivirals. Many thanks to everyone who contributed to this exciting research!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

#preprint #PROTAC #TPD #Antiviral #OpenScience

Neues Hochsicherheitslabor: Mehr Forschung zur Vorbereitung auf Risiko-Viren - Pandemie Netzwerk Hessen An der Virologie der Universität Marburg entsteht ein neues Hochsicherheitslabor, ein BSL-4-Labor, um sich besser auf Pandemien vorzubereiten

In Deutschlands Hochsicherheitslaboren wird an hochpathogenen Viren wie dem Ebola Virus geforscht. In Marburg entsteht aktuell ein neuer Laborbau. Einen aktuellen Einblick in das Projekt geben @markuseickmann.bsky.social und @crnlsrhd.bsky.social:

pandemienetzwerk-hessen.de/neues-hochsi... (CR)

While this marks the end of an important chapter in my life, I see it as the beginning of a new journey—one that I hope will lead me to exciting destinations, surrounded by inspiring mentors, colleagues, and friends in academia.
#PhDone #OneDegreeHotter

A heartfelt thank you to everyone who has supported me throughout this journey. I am especially grateful to Prof. Becker, whose guidance made all of this possible in the first place, and to Dr. Anke Werner, who has been not only an incredible mentor but also a dear friend.

Yesterday was a truly special day – I successfully defended my doctoral thesis at the Institute of Virology in Marburg! After years of education, hard work, research, and perseverance—combined with passion, joy, and, at times, tears and challenges—I am beyond grateful to have reached this milestone.