Manfred Auer ist Professor an der University of Edinburgh, wo er den Chair of Chemical and Translational Biology innehat.
Abstract:
Using alternative, and pragmatic approaches the Auer lab develops methods to suggest, produce, find and evaluate chemical and biological entities. In combining basic quantitative molecular recognition science with initial drug discovery efforts, we identify small molecular tool compounds and biosimilar probes which can be further developed from hits to lead compounds and applied to chemically validate protein targets. Supported by developments from our efforts in the core areas of biology, chemistry and engineering, we have developed four screening platforms which are integrated into one discovery process. In this seminar I will discuss new developments and applications of our Confocal Nanoscanning – On-bead Screening platform (CONA). Particulary, UPS-CONA, a fully integrated process to monitor enzymatic reactions in the ubiquitin – proteasome system, ASYN-CONA, a first in class assay technique to screen for inhibitors of the first steps of oligomerization of the major Parkinson’s disease target alpha-synuclein, and Phage-CONA, a suite of assays which integrate phage display with CONA and which are applied to investigate the antiviral and antibacterial potency of egg enzymes like ovotransferrins.