Brian Blagg - Assistant Professor of Medicinal Chemistry, KU

Research in the Blagg group focuses on developing inhibitors of molecular chaperones, which are proteins responsible for folding growing polypeptides into their three-dimensional shapes. Having a random tertiary structure, nascent polypeptides are folded by the chaperones into the appropriate three-dimensional structure, where the polypeptides themselves become active. Blagg's research is currently targeting Hsp90, a chaperone involved in the folding of numerous proteins and enzymes central to cancer growth. Consequently, the inhibition of the Hsp90 folding process provides a novel approach towards the development of new antitumor therapeutics.