Bi-weekly: Thursdays, 12 pm EDT/EST, 9 am PT/PST, 5 pm BST/BDT, 6 pm CEST/CET
https://dfci.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_m7JJaw52T8yZYt8-ykL6UQ
Some seminars were recorded and accessible for a limited time on our youtube channel.
Upcoming Speakers
December 18th, 2025
Host: Katherine Donovan
Christian Stieger
UC Berkeley
Targeted transcriptional repression by induced proximity.
Many transcription factors orchestrate oncogenic gene expression programs. However, due to their rapid turnover and lack of structure they are particularly hard to target using classical drugs. Here, I will present a new induced-proximity therapeutic modality, Transcriptional Regulation via Active Control of Epigenetic Reprogramming (TRACER), that induces locus-specific transcriptional silencing by recruiting endogenous corepressor complexes to transcription factor binding sites. We developed small-molecule TRACERs that tether methyl-CpG binding domain protein 2 (MBD2) to transcription factor–directed ligands. For example, an estrogen receptor alpha targeting TRACER potently suppressed ER transcriptional activity in breast cancer cells, downregulated canonical ER target genes, and required MBD2 and histone deacetylase (HDAC1/2) for activity, confirming on-target epigenetic repression. Extending this approach to prostate cancer, an androgen receptor (AR) TRACER transcriptionally repressed both full-length AR and the drug-resistant truncation variant AR-V7, achieving >90% inhibition of AR transcriptional activity in androgen-independent prostate cancer cells.
Dmitri Ivanov
University of Texas
Single-Assay Characterization of Ternary Complex Assembly and Activity in Targeted Protein Degradation
Dmitri Ivanov, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Structural Biology at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Research in his laboratory focuses on the molecular mechanisms of innate antiviral immunity, with an emphasis on antiretroviral restriction factors. Dr. Ivanov completed his undergraduate studies in physics at the University of St. Petersburg in Russia and at Northeastern University in Boston. He earned his Ph.D. with Dr. Alfred Redfield at Brandeis University, where he developed a novel field-cycling NMR technique for studying quadrupolar nuclei in biological macromolecules. He then pursued postdoctoral training in biochemistry and structural biology with Dr. Gerhard Wagner at Harvard Medical School, where a serendipitous discovery led to an independent research program in retrovirology. Dr. Ivanov will present methodology for the quantitative monitoring of ubiquitination kinetics, which emerged from his laboratory’s work on the antiviral ubiquitin ligase TRIM5α.
January 8th, 2026
Host: Mikolaj Slabicki / Katherine Donovan
Stephen Fesik
Vanderbilt University
Discovering ligands for E3 ligases and protein targets to achieve protein degradation using NMR-based fragment screening.
Stephen Fesik obtained a PhD in Medicinal Chemistry from the School of Pharmacy at the University of Connecticut and was a postdoc in the Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale Medical School. After his postdoc, he joined Abbott/Abbvie where, he was promoted to the highest level of the scientific ladder and served as Divisional Vice President of Cancer Research from 2000-2009. In 2009, he was recruited to Vanderbilt University where he is a professor of Biochemistry, Pharmacology, and Chemistry and holds the Orrin H. Ingram, II Chair in Cancer Research. Dr. Fesik has trained 75 postdocs, has over 300 publications and 75 patents, has been an invited speaker at many national and international meetings, has won several awards, and served on many Editorial and Scientific Advisory Boards. The focus of his research is on discovering drugs for highly validated but challenging targets using fragment-based methods and structure-based design.
Kate Jackson
C4 Therapeutics
Discovery of CFT8634, a Potent, Selective, and Orally Bioavailable Heterobifunctional Degrader of BRD9.
Kate earned her PhD in chemistry from the University of Colorado at Boulder. After her graduate studies, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University, where she worked with Professor Yoshito Kishi on the total synthesis and biological evaluation of natural products. Following her graduate work, Kate joined the medicinal chemistry team at Vertex Pharmaceuticals where she contributed to programs across multiple indications, including oncology, virology, and CNS disorders. Since 2018, Kate has been working in the targeted protein degradation space, mainly leading discovery-phase oncology programs at C4 Therapeutics.
January 8th, 2026
Host: Mikolaj Slabicki / Katherine Donovan
Stephen Fesik
Vanderbilt University
Discovering ligands for E3 ligases and protein targets to achieve protein degradation using NMR-based fragment screening.
Stephen Fesik obtained a PhD in Medicinal Chemistry from the School of Pharmacy at the University of Connecticut and was a postdoc in the Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale Medical School. After his postdoc, he joined Abbott/Abbvie where, he was promoted to the highest level of the scientific ladder and served as Divisional Vice President of Cancer Research from 2000-2009. In 2009, he was recruited to Vanderbilt University where he is a professor of Biochemistry, Pharmacology, and Chemistry and holds the Orrin H. Ingram, II Chair in Cancer Research. Dr. Fesik has trained 75 postdocs, has over 300 publications and 75 patents, has been an invited speaker at many national and international meetings, has won several awards, and served on many Editorial and Scientific Advisory Boards. The focus of his research is on discovering drugs for highly validated but challenging targets using fragment-based methods and structure-based design.
Kate Jackson
C4 Therapeutics
Discovery of CFT8634, a Potent, Selective, and Orally Bioavailable Heterobifunctional Degrader of BRD9.
Kate earned her PhD in chemistry from the University of Colorado at Boulder. After her graduate studies, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University, where she worked with Professor Yoshito Kishi on the total synthesis and biological evaluation of natural products. Following her graduate work, Kate joined the medicinal chemistry team at Vertex Pharmaceuticals where she contributed to programs across multiple indications, including oncology, virology, and CNS disorders. Since 2018, Kate has been working in the targeted protein degradation space, mainly leading discovery-phase oncology programs at C4 Therapeutics.
Phenotypic discovery and optimization of TRIM21-recruiting molecular glue degraders.
Dr. Steven M. Corsello is an Assistant Professor of Medicine (Oncology) at Stanford University, with a courtesy appointment in Chemical and Systems Biology. As a physician-scientist, his lab operates at the intersection of functional genomics and chemical biology, aiming to advance novel molecular mechanisms of cancer inhibition toward clinical use. He received his AB in Biochemical Sciences from Harvard University and his MD from Harvard Medical School, followed by residency training in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and subspecialty training in medical oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He founded the Drug Repurposing Hub—a unique, publicly available collection of over 6,000 existing drugs—which powers the PRISM Drug Repurposing Screen, identifying compounds with unexpected selective anti-cancer activity. Dr. Corsello’s work has been recognized with the Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator Award, the American Society of Clinical Oncology Young Investigator Award, and a National Cancer Institute Career Development Award.
Anthony Rullo
McMaster University
Dual Covalent Stabilization of Ternary Complexes for "Induced Proximity" at the Cell Surface.
The focuses of the Rullo Translational Chemical Biology research program are directed at integrating the tools of organic chemistry physical biochemistry and immunobiology to develop new molecular approaches capable of interrogating and modulating immune recognition of disease. This research program is founded within the scientific environment of the Center for Discovery in Cancer Research (CDCR) and McMaster Immunology Research Center (MIRC). Prof. Rullo’s chemical biological scientific training and experience, encompasses the development of chemical strategies and probes to study immunologically relevant biomolecular interactions and modulate the function of macromolecules such as lectins and antibodies. This work also founds the development of new synthetic tumor immunotherapeutic tools including covalent immune recruiting molecules. After obtaining his undergraduate degree in Biochemistry at McMaster University, Prof. Rullo began studying structural carbohydrate chemistry and polysaccharide vaccine development with Mario A. Monteiro during his master’s studies at the University of Guelph. As a doctoral student under the supervision of Mark Nitz at the University of Toronto, he developed fluorescent chemical probes of complex glycosaminoglycan binding interactions, in addition to new carbohydrate directed affinity labeling bio-conjugation strategies. Dr. Rullo conducted his postdoctoral research in David A. Spiegel’s laboratory at Yale, working to develop new bi-functional small molecule based immunotherapeutic approaches. This yielded the discovery of first in class antibody recruiting molecules capable of targeting highly metastatic cancers in vivo. He currently serves as the scientific founder and CSO of BICOVA Therapeutics, a new biotech company spun out of McMaster University in 2024.
February 5th, 2026
Host: Hubert Huang
Michelle Arkin
UCSF
Molecular glues for native protein-protein interactions.
Michelle Arkin is a chemical biologist, Executive Director of the Small Molecule Discovery Center, and Vice Dean of Research Technology and Entrepreneurship in the School of Pharmacy at UCSF. Her research focuses on developing methods and molecules that target currently ‘undruggable proteins,’ including protein-protein interactions and dynamic or intrinsically disordered proteins. For this work, she was recognized by the 2024 American Chemical Society (ACS) Cope Scholar Award, 2024 ACS/Biochemistry Gordon Hammes Lecturer Award, and 2025 Harrison Howe Award (Rochester section of the ACS). Prior to UCSF, Michelle was a scientist at Sunesis Pharmaceuticals, where she helped discover small molecule inhibitors of IL-2/IL-2R and LFA/ICAM (the anti-inflammatory drug lifitegrast, marketed by Novartis). She serves on the advisory boards for several pharmaceutical companies and is a co-founder of Elgia Tx, Ambagon Tx, ResNovas Tx, and BNM Oncology.