Salk Scientists Want to Target the Protein Interactome for Drug Discovery

For decades, researchers have struggled to translate basic scientific discoveries about cancer into therapeutics that effectively—and with minimal side effects—shrink a tumor.

One avenue that may hold great potential is the development of drugs that interfere with interactions between proteins, which are often disrupted during the formation and spread of cancer. Deciphering these interactions, however, has proven difficult and time consuming, leading to doubts about the practicality of this approach as a route to new therapies.

Cell Reports

Now, Salk scientists have developed a highly sensitive, new method that enables them to detect fleeting protein interactions that play critical roles in the development of many diseases including cancer. The approach, published November 20 in , could dramatically accelerate the identification of many potential new drug targets and provide an immediate platform to screen for badly needed new drug candidates that disrupt abnormal protein interactions.

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