When:
Monday, April 19, 2021
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM CT
Where: Online
Audience: Faculty/Staff - Student - Post Docs/Docs - Graduate Students
Contact:
Lexi Nash
(312) 503-4893
Group: Department of Pharmacology Seminars
Category: Lectures & Meetings
Wenyi Wei, PhD
Professor, Department of Pathology
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Harvard Medical School
Abstract: My laboratory mainly focuses on understanding mechanistically how aberrant cell signaling events lead to altered protein homeostasis and cellular functions to facilitate the development of human disorders including cancer. Our research is uniquely poised to understand how post-translational modifications including lysine ubiquitination, acetylation and methylation generate a complex coding system to transduce cellular messages, and crosstalk with other signaling pathways, such as well-studied kinase-cascades, to govern various cellular processes. I will present new information regarding our dedicated efforts in utilizing multidisciplinary approaches including biochemical and genetic analysis to understand the tumor suppressor role of Cdh1 or Fbw7 and the oncogenic potential of Skp2. I will also report our recent finding that CDK4 inhibition can lead to elevation of PD-L1 in part by impairing SPOP-mediated ubiquitination and degradation of PD-L1, thereby offering the molecular basis and rationale for the combinational therapy of CDK4 inhibitor and PD-1/PD-L1 blockage, and the employment of novel strategies to enable spatiotemporal destruction of the protein targets via PROTACs (PROteolysis TArgeting Chimeras). These results will help to better understand the multilayer regulation of the delicate proteolysis pathways, which will lead us to the design of more efficient intervention strategies to combat cancer and other diseases.