Molecular Tools: using chemistry to see, wrestle, unravel, and trap biology

Wednesday, October 10, 2012 — Concurrent Symposia Session II
10:00 a.m. – Noon	Balcony C

Co-chairs

• Amy Newman, NIDA
• Dan Appella, NIDDK

Program

Using chemistry to discover biology in action that purveys across disciplines at the NIH. Amy Newman has developed fluorescent ligands to visualize the dopamine transporter in dopaminergic neurons and watch trafficking into the cell to see biology associated with addiction. Jay Schneekloth is studying the small ubiquitin-like modifier, Sumo, whose aberrant regulation is linked with carcinogenesis. Small molecules that inhibit sumoylation enzymes will aid in the understanding of sumo conjugation. Hans Luecke designed a chemical genetic strategy to interrogate lysine acetylation events mediated by specific cellular Histone Acetyltransferase (HAT) enzymes. This strategy has been used with small molecule activity-based HAT modulators to unravel genomic targets of eukaryotic HAT domains. Finally, the HIV envelope is a dynamic target that undergoes sequential conformational changes that support membrane fusion and infection. Carole Bewley will describe chemical tools to study the HIV entry process that can inform the design of inhibitors acting on novel targets during the entry process.

Fluorescent tropane-based tools to see monoamine transporters in action
Amy Newman, NIDA

Wrestling with protein sumoylation using small molecule probes
Jay Schneekloth, NCI

Unraveling Epigenetics: Chemical Probes of Lysine Acetylation Networks
Hans Luecke, NIDDK

Using chemistry to trap anti-infective targets
Carole Bewley, NIDDK

Discussant
Dan Appella, NIDDK

Virus-mimic DNA nanoparticles have hollow shell architecture FARE Award Winner
Preethi Chandran, NICHD

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