Discovery of a potent allosteric kinase modulator by combining computational and synthetic methods

PhD student Edwin Kroon from the group Drug Design (Groningen Research Institute of Pharmacy) has discovered an allosteric and potent PDK1 modifier using a combined computational and synthetic approach.
PDK1 is an important kinase target with implications in cancer and diabetes. While pharmaceutical industry is mostly building on ATP competitive inhibitors, the Domling group investigates allosteric binding modes which promise to be more selective and devoid of side effects often seen in kinase drugs. The 3D structural elucidation of the small molecule inhibitor in PDK1 will form the starting point for new potent and selective anti cancer treatments.

The work is a collaboration between the Biondi biochemistry and crystallography group at the Universitatshospital Frankfurt and Camacho from the University of Pittsburgh and has been published in the high profile journal Angewandte Chemie: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.201506310/abstract