Chris Dealwis

Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, USA

The cancer target ribonucleotide reductase and its allosteric regulation

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Biography

Chris Dealwis major interest lies in studying the molecular basis of biological function to maintain homeostasis. I use techniques such as structural biology, including x-ray crystallography, cryo- electron microscopy and neutron diffraction, biochemical and biophysical tools to conduct my studies. One of my major interests is to alleviate human suffering by using drug design to develop new anticancer and anti-Alzheimer’s therapies. In the last two decades I have been focusing on the structure – function and drug design of anticancer agents against the major cancer target ribonucleotide reductase. My lab is the first to solve the structure of the catalytic subunit of eukaryotic and human ribonucleotide reductase and demonstrated the use of structure – based drug design in developing the first reversible, small molecule inhibitor against this enzyme. Additionally, my lab has provided insights into the molecular basis of its exquisite specificity and how it achieves regulation through multimerization.

Abstract

Molecular basis of biological function to maintain homeostasis