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
November 20th, 2025
Host: John Che
Frank McCormick
UCSF
Targeting the RAS pathway with glues, degraders and direct binders.
Frank McCormick, PhD, is a Professor at the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and holds the David A. Wood Chair of Tumor Biology and Cancer Research. Prior to joining the UCSF faculty, Dr. McCormick pursued cancer-related work with several Bay Area biotechnology firms and held positions with Cetus Corporation (Director of Molecular Biology, 1981-1990; Vice President of Research, 1990-1991) and Chiron Corporation, where he was Vice President of Research. In 1992 he founded Onyx Pharmaceuticals, a company dedicated to developing new cancer therapies, and served as its Chief Scientific Officer until 1996. At Onyx Pharmaceuticals, he initiated drug discovery efforts that led to the approval of Sorafenib in 2005 for treatment of renal cell cancer, and for liver cancer in 2007, and the approval of ONYX-015 in 2006 in China for treatment of nasopharyngeal cancer. In addition, Dr. McCormick’s group led to the identification of the CDK4 kinase inhibitor, Palbociclib, approved for treating advanced breast cancer. Dr. McCormick's current research interests center on ways of targeting Ras proteins and their regulators, including the NF1 protein neurofibromin.
Dr. McCormick was Director of the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center from 1997 to 2014 and he served as President, 2012-2013, for the American Association for Cancer Research. Since 2013, Dr. McCormick has led the National Cancer Institute’s Ras Initiative at the Frederick National Laboratories for Cancer Research overseeing the national effort to develop therapies against Ras-driven cancers. Dr. McCormick was recently awarded (September 2025) the Inaugural Stephenson Global Prize Award in recognition of his research and discoveries that have transformed the field of RAS-driven cancers.
Dr. McCormick is the author of over 430 scientific publications and holds more than 20 issued patents and is a Fellow of the Royal Society and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
December 4th, 2025
Host: Zuzanna Kozicka
Zhenguang Zhao & Ethan Yang Feng
Harvard
PCMT1 generates the C-terminal cyclic imide degron on CRBN substrates.
Zhenguang Zhao, Ph.D. is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University, working under the mentorship of Professor Christina Woo. His research focuses on post-translational modifications (PTMs) for protein degradation, with particular emphasis on the chemical biology of C-terminal cyclic imide modifications and their roles in protein degradation pathways. Dr. Zhao earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry in 2022 at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem under the supervision of Professor Norman Metanis, where he developed chemical tools for peptide and protein synthesis and modification. He earned his master’s degree in organic chemistry in 2017 through a joint program between Jiangxi Normal University and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, where he conducted research on amide bond formation and peptide chemistry methodology under the supervision of Professor Junfeng Zhao. Drawing on a truly international trajectory across Asia, the Middle East, and the United States, he brings together expertise in synthetic chemistry, protein design, and chemical biology to tackle some of the most challenging questions at the chemistry–biology interface.
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Ethan Yang Feng is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University, working under the mentorship of Professor Christina Woo. His current research investigates the native function and mechanistic principles of the E3 ligase adaptor cereblon (CRBN), with an emphasis on how CRBN regulates endogenous protein turnover and cellular physiology. More broadly, Ethan is interested in uncovering underexplored biochemical pathways that shape phenotypic and therapeutic outcomes. Ethan earned his B.A. in Chemistry from Columbia University in 2023, where he conducted research under Professor Ruben Gonzalez to elucidate the mechanistic basis of ribosomal protein synthesis, revealing the role of a universally conserved translation initiation factor. Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Ethan enjoys exploring the craftsmanship of intricate small objects, from mechanical watches to Lego.
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
tpd
tbd
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