EPFL BioE Talks SERIES "Nature’s Switches, Our Tools: Environmentally-Controlled Protein/Protein Interactions"
Event details
| Date | 24.09.2025 |
| Hour | 10:45 › 11:45 |
| Speaker | Prof. Kevin Gardner, City College of New York, NYC, NY (USA) |
| Location | Online |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
| Event Language | English |
WEEKLY EPFL BIOE TALKS SERIES
>>> MIND THE UNUSUAL WEEKDAY (Wed) AND TIME (10:45, meaning no sandwiches this time...) <<<
Abstract:
Environmental cues regulate many cellular pathways in response to changing conditions. Such regulation is often initiated by sensory protein domains which expand their chemical repertoire by using small molecule ligands to convert environmentally-triggered changes into altered protein/protein interactions. Combining biophysics, biochemistry and synthetic chemistry, we study the mechanistic controls of such domains to understand fundamentals of biological signaling and how this might be altered in disease or artificially controlled for therapeutic or biotech purposes. Here I will discuss several examples of this principle, showing how our work into light- and oxygen-regulated signaling proteins has led to novel optogenetic tools and a first in-class anti-cancer therapeutic (Merck’s belzutifan HIF-2 inhibitor). Future directions stemming from this work will also be discussed.
Bio:
Prof. Kevin Gardner is Director of the City University of New York (CUNY) Advanced Science Research Center's Structural Biology Initiative and Einstein Professor in the Departments of Chemistry & Biochemistry, at City College of New York.
Following Ph.D. studies at Yale and a postdoc at the University of Toronto, Kevin Gardner established his independent lab at UT Southwestern Medical Center in 1998. In 2013, he moved to New York to found and direct the Structural Biology Initiative of the new interdisciplinary CUNY Advanced Science Research Center and serve as the Einstein Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry at the City College of New York. His studies have led not only to better understanding of fundamental biology in several areas, but also established novel routes to artificially control protein activity. Practical applications of this through two companies spun out of his group, Peloton Therapeutics, Inc. and Optologix, Inc., which have led to new targeted cancer therapies and optogenetic tools used in academic and industrial settings.
Zoom link (with one-time registration for the whole series) for attending remotely: https://go.epfl.ch/EPFLBioETalks
Instructions for 1st-year Ph.D. students planning to attend this talk, who are under EDBB’s mandatory seminar attendance rule:
IN CASE you cannot attend in-person in the room, please make sure to
>>> MIND THE UNUSUAL WEEKDAY (Wed) AND TIME (10:45, meaning no sandwiches this time...) <<<
Abstract:
Environmental cues regulate many cellular pathways in response to changing conditions. Such regulation is often initiated by sensory protein domains which expand their chemical repertoire by using small molecule ligands to convert environmentally-triggered changes into altered protein/protein interactions. Combining biophysics, biochemistry and synthetic chemistry, we study the mechanistic controls of such domains to understand fundamentals of biological signaling and how this might be altered in disease or artificially controlled for therapeutic or biotech purposes. Here I will discuss several examples of this principle, showing how our work into light- and oxygen-regulated signaling proteins has led to novel optogenetic tools and a first in-class anti-cancer therapeutic (Merck’s belzutifan HIF-2 inhibitor). Future directions stemming from this work will also be discussed.
Bio:
Prof. Kevin Gardner is Director of the City University of New York (CUNY) Advanced Science Research Center's Structural Biology Initiative and Einstein Professor in the Departments of Chemistry & Biochemistry, at City College of New York.
Following Ph.D. studies at Yale and a postdoc at the University of Toronto, Kevin Gardner established his independent lab at UT Southwestern Medical Center in 1998. In 2013, he moved to New York to found and direct the Structural Biology Initiative of the new interdisciplinary CUNY Advanced Science Research Center and serve as the Einstein Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry at the City College of New York. His studies have led not only to better understanding of fundamental biology in several areas, but also established novel routes to artificially control protein activity. Practical applications of this through two companies spun out of his group, Peloton Therapeutics, Inc. and Optologix, Inc., which have led to new targeted cancer therapies and optogenetic tools used in academic and industrial settings.
Zoom link (with one-time registration for the whole series) for attending remotely: https://go.epfl.ch/EPFLBioETalks
Instructions for 1st-year Ph.D. students planning to attend this talk, who are under EDBB’s mandatory seminar attendance rule:
IN CASE you cannot attend in-person in the room, please make sure to
- send D. Reinhard a note well ahead of time (ideally before seminar day), informing that you plan to attend the talk online, and, during seminar:
- be signed in on Zoom with a recognizable user name (not any alias making it difficult or impossible to identify you).
Practical information
- Informed public
- Registration required
Organizer
- Prof. Sahand Rahi, Institute of Physics & Institute of Bioengineering
Contact
- Institute of Bioengineering (IBI), Dietrich REINHARD