Webinar: Small but Powerful: Small Molecule Drug Design by LabX Media Group

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About This Webinar

Small molecules are leading to big discoveries in human health. Using metabolomics, proteomics, and biophysical techniques, researchers screen for small molecules, metabolites, or proteins that target disease mechanisms. In this webinar, experts will discuss new approaches to identify small therapeutic candidates targeting diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease.

Topics to be covered

•Target pancreatic β-cells with small molecules to treat diabetes
•Small molecule sequestering of disordered β-amyloid to protect against Alzheimer’s disease

Presenters

Bridget Wagner, PhD

Director, Pancreatic Cell Biology and Metabolic Disease, Institute Scientist, Broad Institute, MIT and Harvard

Bridget Wagner is an Institute scientist at the Broad Institute, and the director of Pancreatic Cell Biology and Metabolic Disease in the Chemical Biology and Therapeutic Sciences Program. Her group's research focuses on the chemical biology of diabetes, modulating diabetes-related processes with small molecules. This work involves cell-based screening and analytical techniques that she has developed and used for fifteen years of small-molecule discovery. Bridget received an AB from Harvard College and a PhD from the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard University, working with Stuart Schreiber on developing probe-discovery efforts in an academic setting. Wagner has had an instrumental role in the development of the Broad Chemical Biology Program from its inception in 2003.

Gabriella Heller, PhD

Schmidt Science Fellow, University College London

Gabriella Heller is a Schmidt Science Fellow at University College London in the lab of Flemming Hansen. Heller completed her PhD at the University of Cambridge as a Gates Cambridge Scholar in the laboratory of Michele Vendruscolo. From 2019 to 2020 she was the Rosalind Franklin Research Fellow at Newnham College, Cambridge. Heller’s research focuses on intrinsically disordered proteins. These proteins are highly prevalent in diseases such as dementia and cancer, yet are often considered therapeutically untargetable as they lack traditional drug binding pockets. Using a combination of computational and experimental biophysical techniques, Heller has elucidated novel mechanisms by which small molecules can interact with disordered proteins.