The Wilson Research Group

Indirect ubiquitination independent of endogenous ubiquitination machinery for targeted protein degradation - Communications Chemistry Heterobifunctional small degrader molecules that tether endogenous E3 ubiquitin ligases are promising substrates for targeted protein degradation, however, the precise formation of the E3 ligase–targe...

Check out this creative and alternative approach to induce targeted protein degradation published @commschem.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s42...

A generalizable assay for intracellular accumulation to profile cytosolic drug delivery in mammalian cells - Communications Chemistry Cellular penetration is a crucial property of bioactive molecules to reach intracellular targets, however, current penetration assays are limited when it comes to measuring the exact cytosolic accumul...

Interested in cell permeability - check out this nice assay published @commschem.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s42...

🧵1/2
Delighted to get our two preprints out on coiled coil-based degraders www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

👇

Development of Organelle Targeted Ligands to Delineate GPCR signalling at University of Birmingham on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - Development of Organelle Targeted Ligands to Delineate GPCR signalling at University of Birmingham, listed on FindAPhD.com

Its PhD application season! Check out this project with the amazing Davide Calebiro on chemical probes for GPCRs - www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

📣 LAST WEEK for application submissions! BMCS Lectureship Award 2025–2027!
🏅 Recognising excellence in medicinal chemistry & chemical biology.
Know a standout scientist? Nominate now!
🔗 www.rscbmcs.org/awards/lectu...
#MedChem #DrugDiscovery #RSC

#drugdiscovery #medicinalchemistry #biotech #imb #uq #pharmaceuticalscience #hiring | Ian Henderson 🚀 Exciting Leadership Opportunity at the UQ Institute for Molecular Bioscience! We are delighted to announce that the position of Director of Chemistry and Drug Discovery is now open for recruitment...

When the world seems so anti-science, here is something to brighten your day! The UQ Institute for Molecular Bioscience is recruiting a new Director for its Centre for Chemistry and Drug Discovery to drive its drug discovery program! #DrugDiscovery #Biotech
www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

excited to be at Kings College London for the 9th International Symposium on Foldamers @foldnetuk.bsky.social

Check out this editorial I wrote with @keribackus.bsky.social for the special @commschem.nature.com collection on covalent chemical probes - some super papers. www.nature.com/articles/s42...

In vivo crosslinking and effective 2D enrichment for proteome wide interactome studies - Communications Chemistry Cross-linking mass spectrometry faces challenges due to low reaction efficiencies and complex matrices in protein–protein interaction (PPI) studies. Here, the authors enhance an Azide-A-DSBSO-based in...

Nice advance @commschem.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s42...

Discovery of KRAS(G12D) selective degrader ASP3082 - Communications Chemistry KRAS mutations, particularly KRAS(G12D), are prevalent in various cancers, yet effective treatments remain elusive. Here, the authors introduce ASP3082, a pioneering KRAS(G12D)-selective degrader, dem...

Nice @commschem.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s42...

There is still time to register for the @SPIDR_IDP
Frontiers meeting in early september: spidr-slola.com/frontiers-in...

Last few days to submit poster abstracts to present at the SPiDR Frontiers meeting on IDPs in early september:
spidr-slola.com/frontiers-in...

Final few days to submit oral abstracts for this exciting SPiDR conference on intrinsically disordered proteins taking place at the Exchange in Birmingham: spidr-slola.com/frontiers-in...

Grafted Coiled Coils Grafted Coiled Coils

Delighted that our recent publication with @lauraitzhaki.bsky.social and the Woolfson group has been featured by the American Peptide Society americanpeptidesociety.org/aps-news/gra...

Grafted Coiled-Coil Peptides as Multivalent Scaffolds for Protein Recognition Self-assembled peptides are promising templates for the design of inhibitors of protein–protein interactions (PPIs) because they can be endowed with affinity- and selectivity-defining amino acids alon...

Delighted to share our newest publication on Coiled-Coil PPI modulators with The Woolfson and Itkhaki Labs in ACS Chem. Biol. pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Research Fellow - School of Chemistry - 105878 - Grade 7 To create and contribute to the creation of knowledge by undertaking a specified range of activities within an established research programme and/or specific research project.

We have a 3-year postdoc position available, starting in October, to work on molecular capsules for catalysis. Click on the link below to apply! 👇 Happy to have informal chats about the post - send me an email. Application deadline 6 July. edzz.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid... #chemsky

Check out this exciting SPiDR organised conference on intrinsically disordered proteins taking place at the Exchange in Birmingham - abstract submission and registration is now open: spidr-slola.com/frontiers-in...

Last few days to submit your oral and poster abstracts for the RSC PPSG Early Stage Researcher Meeting taking place in Birmingham on 10th July - abstract submission closes 5th June. ajwilsonresearch.com/rsc-peptide-...

An Intracellular Peptide Library Screening Platform Identifies Irreversible Covalent Transcription Factor Inhibitors (Adv. Sci. 18/2025) Covalent Peptide Library Screening Platform A peptide library screening platform was developed to discover covalent transcription factor inhibitors. It identified an antagonist cysteine residue which...

Nice work from the Mason group on covalent PPI modulators identified by cutting edge screening technology. advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

A method to identify small molecule/protein pairs susceptible to protein ubiquitination by the CRBN E3 ligase Although using DNA-encoded libraries (DELs) to find small molecule binders of target proteins is well-established, identifying molecules with functions beyond binding remains challenging in pooled scr...

Clever Screening workflow to ID small-molecule/protein pairs that can undergo ubiqutin transfer.
pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...

Proteome selectivity profiling of photoaffinity probes derived from imidazopyrazine-kinase inhibitors - Communications Chemistry Kinases are attractive drug targets, but the design of highly selective kinase inhibitors remains challenging. Here, the authors report photoaffinity probes based on the imidazopyrazine scaffold, whic...

Nive working making use of diazirines: www.nature.com/articles/s42...

Grafted Coiled-coil Peptides as Multivalent Scaffolds for Protein Recognition Self-assembled peptides are promising templates for the design of inhibitors of protein-protein interaction (PPI) because they can be endowed with affinity- and selectivity-defining amino ac-ids alongside favorable physicochemical properties such as solubility and stability. Here we describe a tunable coiled-coil scaffold and its interaction with MCL-1, an α helix-binding anti-apoptotic protein and important target in oncology. We explore the role of oligomerization, multivalency and co-operativity in PPI inhibition. Hot-spot residues from an MCL-1 binding peptide (NOXA B) are grafted onto the outer surfaces of homo- and hetero-dimeric coiled-coil peptides to obtain inhibitors with mid-nM potency and selectivity over BCL-xL. Binding of ho-modimeric coiled coils to MCL-1 is positively co-operative resulting in stabilization of both part-ners. Homodimeric coiled coils support binding of two copies of the target protein. Modification of the coiled-coil sequence to favor assembly of higher-order scaffolds (trimer and tetramer), negatively impacts inhibitory potency, with AlphaFold2 modelling and biophysical data indicat-ing a complex interplay between coiled-coil oligomerization and target binding. Together, these data establish dimeric coiled coils as the most-promising of such scaffolds to develop inhibitors of α helix-mediated PPIs.

New prepint from our collaboration with the Woolfson and Itzhaki groups on Coiled Coils for protein recognition:
chemrxiv.org/engage/chemr...

Alternative Nucleic Acid Topology (AlterNAT) Meeting supported by the Biochemical Society & the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Nucleic Acids Group. 10th July 2025.
Register online: bit.ly/AlterNAT-2025 Early bird & Abstract deadline: 10th May
@rscnucleicacids.bsky.social @biochemsoc.bsky.social

OK, so it seems many of you are here already and AJWilsonGroup are late to the fun! Promise to make the next post about something scientific!

OK, so AJWilsonGroup are going to give Blue Sky a go. Check on here for news about group activities and we'll look to highlight cool papers, project opportunities and so on on here!