The Transcription Therapy Symposium featured thought leaders at the interface of chemical and biomedical sciences, offering participants the opportunity to learn and explore scientific advances in chromatin and gene regulation, transcription-targeted therapeutics and more. Hosted by the St. Jude Department of Chemical Biology and Therapeutics and the St. Jude Comprehensive Cancer Center, this virtual event was held on September 24, 2020.
Disruption of chromatin, epigenetic states and transcriptional regulation can lead to disease, including pediatric cancers. As our understanding of mechanisms of transcriptional regulation increases, so does our ability to rationally design molecules with therapeutic potential that target these processes. This symposium explored chemical approaches to elucidating and regulating chromatin and epigenetic landscapes, and mechanistically guided approaches to remedying dysfunctional gene regulation in human disease.
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Aseem Ansari
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Paramjit (Bobby) Arora, PhD
New York University
Stephen Frye, PhD
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Nathanael S. Gray, PhD
Stanford University
Anna Mapp, PhD
University of Michigan
Tom Muir, PhD
Princeton University
Charles W.M. Roberts, MD, PhD
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Joanna Wysocka, PhD
Stanford University
Richard A. Young, PhD
Whitehead Institute
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
| Time | Event |
|---|---|
| 8:45 - 9:00 am | Log in |
| 9:00 - 9:05 am | Dr. Charles Roberts and Dr. Aseem Ansari Welcome and Introduction of Dr. Downing |
| 9:05 - 9:15 am | Dr. James Downing, President and CEO of St. Jude Children's Hospital Opening Remarks |
| Session 1 | Chromatin |
| 9:15 - 9:40 am | Dr. Charles Roberts Chromatin Remodeler Mutations in Cancer: Mechanisms and Therapeutic Vulnerabilities |
| 9:45 - 10:10 am | Dr. Stephen Frye Allosteric Antagonists of Methyl-lysine Reader Domain Interactions with DNA/RNA |
| 10:15 - 10:30 am | Break |
| 10:30 - 10:55 am | Dr. Tom Muir Painting Chromatin with Synthetic Protein Chemistry |
| 11:00 - 11:25 am | Dr. Joanna Wysocka Transcriptional Enhancers and Emergence of Form and Function During Development and Evolution |
| 11:30 am - 12:00 pm | Panel Discussion |
| 12:00 - 12:30 pm | Break |
| Session 2 | New Concepts |
| 12:30 - 12:55 pm | Dr. Rick Young Nuclear Condensates in Gene Regulation, Disease Pathology and Drug Partitioning |
| 1:00 - 1:15 pm | Discussion |
| Session 3 | Transcription Factors |
| 1:15 - 1:40 pm | Dr. Aseem Ansari Chemical Control of Gene Expression |
| 1:45 - 2:10 pm | Dr. Anna Mapp Writing the Rules for Targeting Dynamic Transcriptional Coactivators |
| 2:15 - 2:30 pm | Break |
| 2:30 - 2:55 pm | Dr. Bobby Arora Systematic Targeting of Transcription Factor-Coactivator Protein-Protein Interactions |
| 3:00 - 3:25 pm | Dr. Nathanael Gray Targeted Protein Degradation - A New Therapeutic Strategy |
| 3:30 - 4:00 pm | Panel Discussion |
| 4:00 - 4:15 pm | Dr. Aseem Ansari Concluding Remarks |
View the Partner Event
Held Friday, September 25, 2020
2020 Chemical Biology and Therapeutics Symposium
The 2020 Chemical Biology and Therapeutics (CBT) Symposium on Friday, September 25, 2020, is a partner event under the overarching theme of Bringing Chemistry to Medicine. The CBT 2020 symposium brought together leading chemical biologists who are pioneering new synthetic approaches to investigate challenging questions in biology and molecular medicine.
Learn more about the CBT Symposium >>
Speakers
Ivet Bahar, PhD
University of Pittsburgh
UP Drug Discovery Institute
Philip Chamberlain, MD
James Chen, PhD
Stanford University
Tarun Kapoor, PhD
The Rockefeller University
Angela Koehler, PhD
MIT Biological Engineering
Jun Liu, PhD
Johns Hopkins University
Shaomeng Wang, PhD
University of Michigan
Transcription Therapy at St. Jude
Over decades of research, scientists in the St. Jude Comprehensive Cancer Center and others have discovered that several pediatric cancers emerge due to disruption in chromatin and epigenetic states and dysfunctional transcriptional regulation. While gene regulation in general has long been considered “undruggable,” scientists in the St. Jude Department of Chemical Biology & Therapeutics (CBT) have created synthetic gene regulators and are devising new chemical approaches to inhibit or degrade malfunctioning components of chromatin and gene regulatory machineries. This work builds on the history of St. Jude as a pioneer in the therapeutic use of small molecules targeting gene regulation, most notably the application of glucocorticoid receptor agonists into chemotherapy regimens for pediatric patients with acute lymphoblastic lymphoma (ALL). The drugging of this transcription factor helped to dramatically increase overall survival rates for newly diagnosed ALL to 94% at St. Jude.