Research
Research in our group is focused on chemical
biology and involves taking a chemical approach to the
study of cell biology. We start with problems that are
of interest from a biological standpoint and use a combination
of chemical and cellular techniques to understand them.
Working at the interface of chemistry and biology, we
seek to answer questions that are hard to address with
traditional approaches. We are currently interested
in problems relevant to cancer, wound healing and embryonic
development.
Projects in our lab include:
1) Organic chemistry to synthesize bioactive
small molecules.
2) Identification, manipulation and exploitation of
new compounds
that affect cell migration, and characterization of
the molecular
targets of these compounds.
3) Dissection of signaling pathways and biochemistry
of specific
proteins involved in cell motility.
4) Mechanism underlying how groups of cells collectively
generate
force to drive movement of epithelial cell sheets.
The projects in our group involve methods
of organic synthesis (to make and modify drug-like compounds),
protein biochemistry and cell biology. A major focus
is screening for small molecules with desired biological
effects - particularly, effects on cell migration -
and use of these molecules as "probes" for
the affinity-based discovery and characterization of
their cellular targets. Bioactive small molecules used
in this way can serve not only in the identification
of new components of biochemical pathways but also as
direct mechanistic probes for the function of their
protein targets. In other words, once we have the small
molecule's target in hand, we can use the compound and
synthetic variants of it to understand the biochemistry
of the target. These molecules constitute useful research
tools and potential therapeutic drug leads. At this
time, we have a number of compounds at various stages
in this process, including some that have already yielded
new insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying
cell migration. Further information
can be found on the Fenteany
Group Home Page.
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