Treating Cancers, Neurodegenerative Diseases, and Other Rare Conditions

SLU ID 15-014 | A Synthetic MUB LBL-based Peptide for Treating Cancers, Neurodegenerative Diseases, and Other Rare Conditions

Background

Ubiquitin (Ub) is a post-translational modifier that controls numerous processes including endocytosis, DNA repair, selective protein degradation during the cell cycle, and many others. As such, it is a key underlying cause of cancers, neurodegenerative diseases, and a variety of other rare conditions when mis-regulated.

Overview

Researchers at Saint Louis University have developed a synthetic Membrane-anchored Ubiquitin-fold Lap Bar Loop (MUB LBL) based peptide that exhibits potent inhibitory activity towards Ub transfer.

Benefits

The potential benefits of this technology include:

• Increasing the number of access points for dissecting early events in the Ub reaction cascade

• Increasing the pathway selectivity of inhibitors

• Increasing the number of potential therapies for cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, and other rare

• conditions

• Minimizing side effects of treatments for cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, and other rare conditions

Applications

The potential applications of this technology include:

• Reagents for ubiquitylation research

• Drug discovery

• Agriculture

Opportunity

Saint Louis University is seeking a partner to further develop and commercialize this technology.