The 4th Annual Bringing Chemistry to Medicine Symposium will feature talks by leading experts from around the globe working at the interface of chemical and biomedical sciences. Speakers represent expertise across various research areas, including therapeutic regulation of transcription and chromatin, computational biology, and chemical biology. The event will be hosted in a hybrid format with options to attend in-person or virtually. This two day event will focus on two themes:
- Thursday, October 5: Transcription Therapy
- Friday, October 6: Frontiers in Chemical Biology
Bringing Chemistry to Medicine is hosted by the St. Jude Department of Chemical Biology and Therapeutics and the St. Jude Comprehensive Cancer Center, and is a component of the institution’s strategic objective to establish a global hub focused on the emerging field of transcription-targeted therapeutics.
Attendees are encouraged to attend in person to enjoy enhanced networking and collaboration and experience the beautiful St. Jude campus in Memphis, TN.
Speakers and Topics
Thursday, October 5, 2023: Transcription Therapy
Introduction
Dr. James R. Downing
President and Chief Executive Officer
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Topic:
Chromatin
Nada Jabado, MD, PhD
McGill University
Oncohistones in Disease: From Cancer to...Beyond
Charles W. M. Roberts, MD, PhD
Director, Comprehensive Cancer Center
Executive Vice President
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Karen Adelman, PhD
Harvard University
Small Molecules inhibitors reveal direct targets of chromatin remodelers
Emily Dykhuizen, PhD
Purdue University
Chemically Targeting Specific Chromatin Remodeling Subcomplexes in Cancer
Topic:
Transcription Factors and Co-activators
Anna Mapp, PhD
University of Michigan
A General Strategy for Drugging Transcription Factors
Cheryl Arrowsmith, PhD
University of Toronto
Probing the Human Proteome for Therapeutic Opportunities
Topic:
RNA Modifications
Tony Kouzarides, PhD, FMedSci, FRS
University of Cambridge
Targeting RNA Modifying Enzymes in the Treatment of Cancer
Chuan He, PhD
University of Chicago
RNA Methylation in Gene Expression Regulation
Friday, October 6, 2023: Frontiers in Chemical Biology
Topic:
Drugging Transcription
Jun Qi, PhD
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Harvard Medical School
Aseem Z. Ansari, PhD
Chair, Department of Chemical Biology & Therapeutics
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Gerald Crabtree, MD
Stanford University
Rewiring Cancer Drivers to Activate Apoptosis
Topic:
Drugging RNA and Proteins
Paramjit Arora, PhD
New York University
Rational Design to Hijack Transcriptional Protein-Protein Interactions
Lunch:
Danny Thomas Lecture Series
Kevan Shokat, PhD
University of California, San Francisco
Overcoming the Undruggable Nature of The Most Common Human Oncogene K-Ras
Topic:
Chemical Control of Proteostasis
Jay Bradner, MD
Sara Buhrlage, PhD
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Harvard Medical School
Harnessing Deubiquitinases for Next-Generation Protein Stability Therapeutics
Topic:
Folding and Design
David Baker, PhD
University of Washington
Virtual
Closing Remarks
Aseem Z. Ansari, PhD
Chair, Department of Chemical Biology & Therapeutics
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Watch our Archived Lectures
In 2020, 2021 and 2022, St. Jude hosted exciting two-day events focused on Transcription Therapy and Chemical Biology and Therapeutics.
Transcription Therapy at St. Jude
Over decades of research, scientists in the St. Jude Comprehensive Cancer Center and others have discovered that several pediatric cancers emerge due to disruption in chromatin and epigenetic states and dysfunctional transcriptional regulation. While gene regulation in general has long been considered “undruggable,” scientists in the St. Jude Department of Chemical Biology & Therapeutics (CBT) have created synthetic gene regulators and are devising new chemical approaches to inhibit or degrade malfunctioning components of chromatin and gene regulatory machineries. This work builds on the history of St. Jude as a pioneer in the therapeutic use of small molecules targeting gene regulation, most notably the application of glucocorticoid receptor agonists into chemotherapy regimens for pediatric patients with acute lymphoblastic lymphoma (ALL). The drugging of this transcription factor helped to dramatically increase overall survival rates for newly diagnosed ALL to 94% at St. Jude.
Learn more about transcription therapy at St. Jude Learn more