WARF Therapeutics Lecture: Prof. Hiroaki Suga (University of Tokyo)

This event has passed.

1315 Seminar Hall
@ 3:30 pm

Prof. Hiroaki Suga

Title: De novo Macrocyclic Peptides, Pseudo-Natural Products, and NeoBiologics for Therapeutic Innovation

Bio:

Hiroaki Suga is a Professor of the Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science in the University of Tokyo since 2010. He received Ph.D. at MIT (1994). He was tenured Associate Professor in the State University of New York at Buffalo (1997-2003) and Professor in the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology in the University of Tokyo (2003-2010). He is the recipient of many national and international awards, including Akabori Memorial Award 2014, Max-Bergmann Medal 2016, Vincent du Vigneaud Award 2019, MIT TY Shen Lecture 2022, ETHZ Prelog Medal 2022, Research Award of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation 2020, Hisayuki Matsuo Award 2022, Wolf Prize in Chemistry 2023, and Japan Academy Prize 2024. He is also a founder of PeptiDream and MiraBiologics in Japan.

Abstract:

Macrocyclic peptides possess a number of pharmacological characteristics distinct from other well-established therapeutic molecular classes, resulting in a versatile drug modality with a unique profile of advantages. De novo macrocyclic peptides are accessible by not only chemical synthesis but also ribosomal synthesis. Particularly, recent inventions of the genetic code reprogramming integrated with an in vitro display format, referred to as RaPID (Random non-standard Peptides Integrated Discovery) system, have enabled us to screen mass libraries over trillion members). This system has been recently integrated post-translational modifying enzymes to display mass libraries of pseudo-natural products. Moreover, we have recently developed a LassoGraft technology where a pharmacophore sequence of macrocycle is grafted (i.e. replaced) into a loop of a protein of interest, yielding a protein that has a binding ability of the parental macrocycle has. We referred such proteins to as NeoBiologics. This lecture discusses the therapeutic potentials of this technology, leading to mirabodies, addbodies, U-bodies, and neocapsids.

Keywords: Pharmaceutical, peptides, proteins, enzymes, biotechnology

Host: Prof. Tina Wang