Description: Protein–protein interactions (PPIs) have pivotal roles in life processes. Aberrant PPIs are associated with various diseases, including cancer, infectious diseases, and neurodegenerative diseases. Therefore, targeting PPIs is a direction in treating diseases and an essential strategy for the development of new drugs. By contrast, PPI stabilization has remained largely underexplored but became recently the focus of induced proximity modalities such Targeted Protein Degradation (TPD) where small molecules mediate and stabilize PPIs, i.e Molecular glue degraders and natural products have demonstrated the therapeutic value of stabilizing native or non-native PPIs. Stabilization has the potential to target unstructured, difficult to drug proteins via composite PPI binding pockets. These modalities require specialized assays and a plethora of new assay formats have been recently developed to identify and characterise neomorphic PPIs. The objective of our SIG is to facilitate and promote the exchange of knowledge and experience with proximity assays i.e in Targeted Protein Degradation and Protein-Protein Interactions, setting standards and educate the field.
Session Information: The inaugural SIG meeting will focus on novel technologies to identify and characterise molecular glues and weak protein-protein interactions. We will address the challenges to develop molecular glues and discuss ways to rational design molecular glues. The session will host leaders from academia and industry who will present their novel technologies and approaches.