January 8th, 2026
Host: Mikolaj Slabicki / Katherine Donovan
Stephen Fesik
Vanderbilt University
Discovering ligands for E3 ligases and protein targets to achieve protein degradation using NMR-based fragment screening.
Stephen Fesik obtained a PhD in Medicinal Chemistry from the School of Pharmacy at the University of Connecticut and was a postdoc in the Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale Medical School. After his postdoc, he joined Abbott/Abbvie where, he was promoted to the highest level of the scientific ladder and served as Divisional Vice President of Cancer Research from 2000-2009. In 2009, he was recruited to Vanderbilt University where he is a professor of Biochemistry, Pharmacology, and Chemistry and holds the Orrin H. Ingram, II Chair in Cancer Research. Dr. Fesik has trained 75 postdocs, has over 300 publications and 75 patents, has been an invited speaker at many national and international meetings, has won several awards, and served on many Editorial and Scientific Advisory Boards. The focus of his research is on discovering drugs for highly validated but challenging targets using fragment-based methods and structure-based design.
Kate Jackson
C4 Therapeutics
Discovery of CFT8634, a Potent, Selective, and Orally Bioavailable Heterobifunctional Degrader of BRD9.
Kate earned her PhD in chemistry from the University of Colorado at Boulder. After her graduate studies, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University, where she worked with Professor Yoshito Kishi on the total synthesis and biological evaluation of natural products. Following her graduate work, Kate joined the medicinal chemistry team at Vertex Pharmaceuticals where she contributed to programs across multiple indications, including oncology, virology, and CNS disorders. Since 2018, Kate has been working in the targeted protein degradation space, mainly leading discovery-phase oncology programs at C4 Therapeutics.
Phenotypic discovery and optimization of TRIM21-recruiting molecular glue degraders.
Dr. Steven M. Corsello is an Assistant Professor of Medicine (Oncology) at Stanford University, with a courtesy appointment in Chemical and Systems Biology. As a physician-scientist, his lab operates at the intersection of functional genomics and chemical biology, aiming to advance novel molecular mechanisms of cancer inhibition toward clinical use. He received his AB in Biochemical Sciences from Harvard University and his MD from Harvard Medical School, followed by residency training in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and subspecialty training in medical oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He founded the Drug Repurposing Hub—a unique, publicly available collection of over 6,000 existing drugs—which powers the PRISM Drug Repurposing Screen, identifying compounds with unexpected selective anti-cancer activity. Dr. Corsello’s work has been recognized with the Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator Award, the American Society of Clinical Oncology Young Investigator Award, and a National Cancer Institute Career Development Award.
Anthony Rullo
McMaster University
Dual Covalent Stabilization of Ternary Complexes for "Induced Proximity" at the Cell Surface.
The focuses of the Rullo Translational Chemical Biology research program are directed at integrating the tools of organic chemistry physical biochemistry and immunobiology to develop new molecular approaches capable of interrogating and modulating immune recognition of disease. This research program is founded within the scientific environment of the Center for Discovery in Cancer Research (CDCR) and McMaster Immunology Research Center (MIRC). Prof. Rullo’s chemical biological scientific training and experience, encompasses the development of chemical strategies and probes to study immunologically relevant biomolecular interactions and modulate the function of macromolecules such as lectins and antibodies. This work also founds the development of new synthetic tumor immunotherapeutic tools including covalent immune recruiting molecules. After obtaining his undergraduate degree in Biochemistry at McMaster University, Prof. Rullo began studying structural carbohydrate chemistry and polysaccharide vaccine development with Mario A. Monteiro during his master’s studies at the University of Guelph. As a doctoral student under the supervision of Mark Nitz at the University of Toronto, he developed fluorescent chemical probes of complex glycosaminoglycan binding interactions, in addition to new carbohydrate directed affinity labeling bio-conjugation strategies. Dr. Rullo conducted his postdoctoral research in David A. Spiegel’s laboratory at Yale, working to develop new bi-functional small molecule based immunotherapeutic approaches. This yielded the discovery of first in class antibody recruiting molecules capable of targeting highly metastatic cancers in vivo. He currently serves as the scientific founder and CSO of BICOVA Therapeutics, a new biotech company spun out of McMaster University in 2024.
February 5th, 2026
Host: Hubert Huang
Michelle Arkin
UCSF
Molecular glues for native protein-protein interactions.
Michelle Arkin is a chemical biologist, Executive Director of the Small Molecule Discovery Center, and Vice Dean of Research Technology and Entrepreneurship in the School of Pharmacy at UCSF. Her research focuses on developing methods and molecules that target currently ‘undruggable proteins,’ including protein-protein interactions and dynamic or intrinsically disordered proteins. For this work, she was recognized by the 2024 American Chemical Society (ACS) Cope Scholar Award, 2024 ACS/Biochemistry Gordon Hammes Lecturer Award, and 2025 Harrison Howe Award (Rochester section of the ACS). Prior to UCSF, Michelle was a scientist at Sunesis Pharmaceuticals, where she helped discover small molecule inhibitors of IL-2/IL-2R and LFA/ICAM (the anti-inflammatory drug lifitegrast, marketed by Novartis). She serves on the advisory boards for several pharmaceutical companies and is a co-founder of Elgia Tx, Ambagon Tx, ResNovas Tx, and BNM Oncology.
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February 19th, 2026
Host: Katherine Donovan / Mikolaj Slabicki
Chase Suiter
University of Washington
Multiplex design and discovery of proximity handles for programmable proteome editing.
Chase Suiter develops technologies to profile and program protein degradation. As part of his graduate work, he combined computational protein design and high-throughput cellular screening methods to discover “proximity handles” that enable programmable proteome editing using effectors from the UPS and autophagy pathways. His long-term goal is to develop computationally designed therapeutics to treat complex human disease.
Carles Galdeano
University of Barcelona
From Exploiting Binding Sites on E3 ligases to Developing Allosteric Modulators of the FBW7 E3 Ligase.
Dr Carles Galdeano is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Barcelona. He obtained his PhD in medicinal chemistry at the University of Barcelona. After that, he spent three years post-doc in Alessio Ciulli’s lab (first at the University of Cambridge and later at the University of Dundee) where they developed the first potent VHL ligands described. His postdoctoral discoveries represented a breakthrough in the PROTACs field. In 2015, he returned to the University of Barcelona to work in collaboration with Prof Barril until 2019, when he started his independent research group. Dr Galdeano is also co-founder of Oniria Therapeutics. His lab is interested in expanding the druggable proteome since most proteins are still considered undruggable for conventional drug discovery approaches.
March 5th, 2026
Host: Breanna Zerfas
Safety of Targeted Protein Degraders: HESI Global’s Collaborative Framework and Portfolio Highlights.
Targeted protein degraders (TPDs) represent a rapidly expanding therapeutic modality, yet their novel mechanisms introduce unique and unresolved safety challenges. The Targeted Protein Degrader Safety Committee at the Health and Environmental Sciences Institute (HESI Global) is a precompetitive, multi-sector consortium dedicated to advancing scientific consensus on the translational safety assessment of TPDs. The session will highlight two collaborative efforts from the Cereblon (CRBN) Workgroup: 1) a review that synthesizes current knowledge on the biology of CRBN, off-target neosubstrate degradation, species differences, and best practices for safety testing of CRBN-recruiting molecular glue degraders and PROTACs; 2) ongoing experimental work designed to directly link neosubstrate degradation with human-relevant in vitro teratogenicity signals using cell–based assays and proteomics. Together, these efforts exemplify HESI Global’s role in generating science-based actionable, translational reference information to support the safe development of next-generation TPDs.
HESI TPD Safety Committee Website: https://hesiglobal.org/targeted-protein-degrader-safety/
Cissy Li
HESI Global
Cissy Li is a scientific program manager at the Health and Environmental Sciences Institute (HESI Global). She holds a PhD in Molecular and Translational Toxicology from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a Certificate in Risk Sciences and Public Policy. She has eight years of experience at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, where she served in the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition and the Center for Tobacco Products. Her work spanned chemical safety and risk assessment, regulatory science, and interdisciplinary research focused on evaluating toxicity and public health impact, where she led cross-functional scientific teams and helped advance evidence-based regulatory decision-making. At HESI, she now manages multi-stakeholder, collaborative, precompetitive research in the Targeted Protein Degrader Safety and Antibody-Drug Conjugate Safety programs.
James Sidaway
ApconiX
James Sidaway is an innovative mechanistic toxicologist with over 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. As a molecular-investigative toxicologist at AstraZeneca, he helped resolve safety issues for drug discovery and development projects across the major therapy areas. At AstraZeneca and as an independent consultant, he pioneered advanced in vitro models for organ toxicity screening and applied novel technology and informatics platforms for safety assessment. In 2021, James joined ApconiX, a UK-based company specializing in nonclinical toxicology and ion channel electrophysiology, to enhance its target safety assessment function. He is now head of ApconiX’s Safety Science Group, leading over 20 toxicologists and data scientists to deliver target safety and drug toxicity solutions through expert insight and state-of-the-art informatics.
Benjamin Elser
Bristol Myers Squibb
Benjamin Elser is a Senior Scientist in the Developmental and Reproductive Toxicology group at Bristol Myers Squibb. He obtained his PhD in Human Toxicology from the University of Iowa. In his current role at BMS, he is responsible for the design, oversight, and interpretation of developmental and reproductive toxicology studies, as well as the development of in vitro screening methods to assess the teratogenic risk of drug candidates. As a member of the HESI Targeted Protein Degrader Safety Committee, he contributes to a collaborative project focused on evaluating the relationship between neosubstrate degradation and in vitro teratogenicity signals for Cereblon-engaging targeted protein degraders.
March 19th, 2026
Host: Mikolaj Slabicki
Daniel Finley
Harvard Medical School
Global remodeling of the proteome.
Dr. Finley's group is interested in various aspects of the ubiquitin-proteasome system. Current work on the proteasome mainly involves factors that reversibly associate with it and regulate its activity, such as the deubiquitinating enzyme Ubp6, the ubiquitin ligase Hul5, and the proteasome inhibitor Ecm29. Ubp6 attacks ubiquitin chains on proteins that have docked at the proteasome, suppressing their degradation, while Hul5 opposes Ubp6, adding to these chains to promote processive degradation of the ubiquitinated protein. Another project involves global proteome remodeling, which occurs in various cell types undergoing differentiation, and may involve thousands of proteins. Proteome-wide remodeling programs play a key role in transitioning cells to differentiated states, and are principally driven by a handful of specialized ubiquitin ligases.
John Hanna
Brigham & Women’s Hospital
Development of Novel Proteasome Inhibitors Based on the Endogenous Inhibitor PI31
John Hanna is an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School and an associate Pathologist in the Department of Pathology at the Brigham & Women’s Hospital. John received his undergraduate degree from Stanford and his MD and PhD degrees from HMS. John’s lab studies the basic mechanisms of protein degradation by the proteasome, with an emphasis on the assembly and regulation of the proteasome’s core particle, which is the subcomplex that harbors its proteolytic active sites. John is also a practicing physician focused on skin and soft tissue pathology, and has separate investigative interests in the molecular and cellular basis of cutaneous tumors.