Project description
Cyclic peptides chemical platform for validation of complex targets
The development of therapeutic agents requires novel methods for more efficient target validation for protein-protein and other complexes. Natural products like cyclic peptides represent a promising chemical platform for target validation. Recent technological advances have enabled the efficient production and screening of large libraries containing non-proteinogenic residues. The EU-funded CPTarget project aims to develop innovative chemical and molecular techniques to explore natural product-like cyclic peptides in target validation for complex, challenging targets. The goal is to enable the development of new therapeutic agents targeting multiple diseases, advancing methodology, and enabling new ways to investigate potential targets.
Objective
The current ‘genomics’ era is an exciting time for drug target discovery with considerable opportunities for therapeutic intervention. Whilst classical small molecules remain the reagents of choice as chemical probes for target validation, not all targets are tractable with small molecules. There is thus an urgent need to develop methods for more efficient target validation, not only of individual proteins but also of protein-protein and other complexes.
Natural product like cyclic peptides have enormous potential as a chemical platform for target validation. Recent technological advances have enabled the efficient production and screening of large libraries containing non-proteinogenic residues. De novo cyclic peptides with high affinity and selectivity for target proteins can be readily generated, even for protein-protein interaction targets perceived as challenging. Development of this technology and their innovative applications as outlined in our proposal will provide a step-change in methodology, and transform the current approach for studying the biological function of the target / pathways, enabling new ways to investigate potential targets.
We aim to develop innovative chemical and molecular techniques to explore the applications of natural product-like cyclic peptides in target validation for very challenging targets. Ultimately the work aims to enable the development of new therapeutic agents targeting multiple diseases.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
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Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
ERC-COG - Consolidator GrantHost institution
NE1 7RU Newcastle Upon Tyne
United Kingdom