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Some seminars were recorded and accessible for a limited time on our youtube channel.

Upcoming Speakers

May 29th, 2025

Host: Zuzanna Kozicka

BromoCatch: a self-labelling tag platform for protein analysis and live cell imaging

Maria Rodriguez-Rios

CeTPD, University of Dundee

Maria Rodriguez-Rios is a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Targeted Protein Degradation at the University of Dundee, working under the supervision of Professor Alessio Ciulli. She earned her PhD in Chemical Biology from the University of Edinburgh in 2023, under the mentorship of Professor Mark Bradley, where she developed fluorogenic chemical probes for detecting proteases as biomarkers in inflammation.

Building on her expertise in chemical tools for protein analysis, Maria continued her research journey in the Ciulli Lab, focusing on the development of chemigenetic platforms for protein manipulation and imaging. As part of a collaboration between the Ciulli Lab and Tocris Bio-Techne, she co-developed BromoCatch — a self-labeling protein tag system based on a bromodomain fusion protein. BromoCatch can be genetically fused to a protein of interest and covalently binds to a specific synthetic probe, enabling precise and selective labeling of tagged proteins in live cells or in vitro. She is currently working on further advancing this versatile technology into new applications to study protein function within cells.

Conner Craigon

CeTPD, University of Dundee

Conner Craigon is a postdoctoral research associate at the Centre for Targeted Protein Degradation (CeTPD) within the School of Life Sciences at the University of Dundee. Working in Professor Alessio Ciulli’s lab, his research focuses on the development of innovative chemical biology tools and strategies for targeted protein degradation. Dr. Craigon lead the biology in the development of BromoTag, a "bump-and-hole" PROTAC system enabling rapid, potent, and selective degradation of genetically tagged target proteins. This technology has been licensed by Bio-Techne and is now available through Tocris Bioscience. His recent work includes co-developing BromoCatch, a self-labeling tag system designed for precise control and analysis of protein behavior, further expanding the chemical biology toolbox available for studying dynamic cellular systems. He earned his PhD from the University of Dundee, where he continues to contribute to cutting-edge research in chemical biology.

Crystal structures of DCAF1-PROTAC-WDR5 ternary complexes and insights into DCAF1 substrate recognition

Mark Mabanglo

Ontario Institute for Cancer Research

Mark obtained his PhD in Chemistry from the University of Utah where he trained in mechanistic enzymology in the lab of Dale Poulter. Half of his PhD was spent doing X-ray crystallography in the lab of Christopher Hill, after which he decided to train further in structural biology and did a postdoc at Duke University in the lab of Lorena Beese. He is now a Research Scientist with the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research in Toronto, Canada, where he applies integrative structural biology and biochemistry in cancer drug discovery.

Mahmoud Noureldin

Ontario Institute for Cancer Research

Mahmoud obtained his Bachelor's degree with a double major in Biology and Medical Sciences from Western University in London, Ontario. He then pursued a PhD in Pharmacology and Physiology at Western University in London, Ontario in the lab of Dr. Donglin Bai, where he utilized electrophysiology to study the effects of connexin mutations in atrial fibrillation. Following this, he joined the lab of Dr. Rima Al-Awar at the University of Toronto, where his research focused on cancer biology, target validation, and small molecule drug discovery. Currently, Mahmoud is a Postdoctoral Fellow at OICR, where he continues to explore novel small-molecule inhibitors and protein degraders for cancer therapy.

June 12th, 2025

Host: Mikolaj Slabicki

Selective degradation of multimeric proteins by molecular glue and PROTAC degraders.

Ting Han

National Institute of Biological Sciences

Dr. Han earned his B.S. degree from Tsinghua University in 2006 and his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 2013. He subsequently conducted postdoctoral research as a Life Sciences Research Foundation Fellow at UT Southwestern. He joined the National Institute of Biological Sciences (NIBS), Beijing, as an Assistant Investigator (2017-2024) and Associate Investigator (2025-present). His laboratory focuses on two complementary research areas: (1) the discovery and development of molecular glue degraders; and (2) the identification and validation of novel therapeutic targets for cancer treatment.

Targeting TRIM21 with glues and PROTACs

Drew Adams

Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine

Drew Adams, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Dept. of Genetics and Genome Sciences and the Thomas F. Peterson, Jr. Professor of Novel Therapeutics at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. He completed his PhD in organic chemistry at Harvard, but his postdoctoral work with Stuart Schreiber at the Broad Institute pivoted toward chemical biology and drug discovery. Since joining CWRU in 2015, Drew has used chemical biology approaches to identify novel druggable therapeutic targets. His lab's work defining a sterol signaling mechanism promoting remyelination led him in 2017 to co-found Convelo Therapeutics, which continues to advance toward clinical testing in multiple sclerosis. More recent work has validated novel targets in T cell signaling, neurodegenerative disease, and cancer. In 2024, he was elected a Senior Member of the National Academy of Inventors. A former member of Red Sox Nation, he now follows the Guardians.