The use of heterobifunctional small molecule Degraders (e.g. PROTACs, SNIPERs etc) to elicit targeted protein degradation (TPD) is an area of increasing interest in chemical biology. As tools for basic research, they offer an attractive approach for inducing selective protein knockdown in a reversible and tunable manner, without the requirement for genetic modification to cells. Therapeutically too, this is an area of tremendous current interest, as a potential new approach to tackle the ‘undruggable’ proteome and overcome common resistance mechanisms to current therapies.

This webinar will provide a practical introduction to the field of Targeted Protein Degradation, discussing design and optimization of Degrader molecules and how structural biology and rational design can shed light on the Degrader development process. The second section of the webinar will present the dTAG platform for target validation. dTAG molecules specifically recognize and degrade FKBP12F36V fusion proteins, presenting a new platform for target validation studies.