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: Jeff
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
The Pomerantz Lab Welcomes 2 New Members!
November 30, 2023
The Pomerantz lab welcomes two chemistry students, Bella Jacobsen (left) and Ethan Essenfeld (right), to the group!
Bella earned her B.A. in Chemistry from Grinnell College in 2021. She will be working on new degraders for male contraception.
Ethan earned his B.S in Chemistry from Emory University in 2023. He will be working on degraders for a nucleosome remodeling complex and novel E3 ligase ligand development.
Pete Wins Pothapragada Fellowship
November 28, 2023
Congrats to Pete for winning one of the department’s first Pothapragada Fellowships! Way to go Pete!
