Research
Research in our lab is focused on chemical
biology and involves taking a chemical approach to 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 biological approaches. We are currently
interested in problems relevant to wound healing, cancer
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) Molecular mechanism of action of antimigratory compounds;
protein-small molecule interactions.
4) Biochemical and cellular analysis of signaling pathways
and function of specific proteins involved in cell motility.
5) Mechanism underlying how groups of cells collectively
generate force to drive movement of epithelial cell
sheets.
The projects in our lab involve methods of protein biochemistry,
cell biology and organic synthesis to make and modify
bioactive small molecules. A major focus is screening
for small molecules with a desired biological effect
and using these molecules as "probes" for
use in affinity-based discovery, isolation and characterization
of the cellular target. This approach allows us to dissect
biological and biochemical pathways without a bias toward
already characterized proteins. It is analogous to the
genetic approach but possesses the added advantage that
the small molecule or drug not only allows for the implication
of a protein target in a pathway but also can serve
as a direct mechanistic probe for the target's function.
In other words, once we have the small molecule's target
in hand, we can use the small molecule and synthetic
variants of it to understand the biochemistry of the
target.
Such approaches are especially important in an era when
whole genome sequences are known but understanding of
function lags well behind. Chemistry provides an amazing
battery of tools for advancing knowledge of biological
function. We wish to further explore and define the
areas of overlap between chemistry and biology.
Further information can be found on the Fenteany Group
website.
Fenteany
Group Home Page.
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