The Pomerantz lab is a chemical biology group at the University of Minnesota. Our interdisciplinary research uses a wide range of techniques including organic synthesis, bioanalytical chemistry, biochemistry and molecular biology for studying the function of transcription factors involved in disease. Our primary goal is to discover small molecules which we can synthesize in the laboratory to modulate the function of protein-protein interactions involved in transcription, with the ultimate goal of developing new chemical probes for understanding the biology of these proteins.
Not pictured: Jackie
Our Research: Our overarching goal is to discover new ways to inhibit protein-protein interactions (PPIs) involved in transcription. Our research seeks to understand the molecular level details of transcription factor-protein interactions and epigenetic complexes which control how our genetic information is expressed. At the same time, we use chemistry to design synthetic molecules that disrupt the dysregulated forms of PPI communication to further understand the underlying biology and treat disease. We apply NMR and MRI, to visualize biomolecular interactions, and use small molecules that we synthesize in the laboratory to perturb the protein function. Students and postdocs working in this area are exposed to broad training in organic synthesis, protein biochemistry, fragment-based drug design and additional applied biophysics techniques to validate our 19F NMR approach.
Given that transcription factors represent a major class of potential drug targets and the demand for structural methods to characterize them, our biomolecular 19F NMR approach for transcription factor-PPIs could significantly increase the repertoire of new targets and open up new paths forward for small molecule discovery.
Lab News
Richard Wins Epigenetics Flash Talk Competition
December 19, 2024
Richard Ede won first place in the Annual Epigenetic Consortium Flash Talk Competition with his presentation "Development of Targeted Covalent Inhibitors (TCIs) of PCAF as a Possible Treatment for HIV and Brain Cancer." Congratulations, Richard!
Great Lab Representation for Excellence Fellowships and TA Awards 2024
September 5, 2024
Congratulations to our lab members' achievements at the Department of Chemistry's Kickoff Seminar. Richard Ede received an Excellence Fellowship from the Robert and Jill DeMaster Fellowship Fund in recognition of his achievements in the Chemistry graduate program. Bella Jacobsen received an award for achieving a 4.0 GPA in the 2023-2024 academic year. Ruoqi Jiang received a TA award honorable mention for the 2023-2024 academic year. Well done!!