"Towards computational drug design for cancer chemotherapy" is the title that will be given by Jack A. Tuszynski (Allard Chair - Division of Experimental Oncology - Canada), on 8 July, at 2:00 pm, on Amph. C (Complexo pedagógico - Campus Gambelas - UAlg).
See the poster here.
Abstract
Microtubules are critically involved in mitosis and are made up of tubulin. Computer models of human tubulin isotypes identified similarities and differences in their properties and in the binding sites for paclitaxel, vinblastine and colchicine. The potential of isotype-specific derivatives we designed for use in cancer chemotherapy will be discussed. We have also modelled tubulin mutations to find any correlations with drug resistance. I'll discuss our partial experimental validation of these results. We have recently embarked on massive computational screening of candidate drugs for various chemotherapeutic targets. Here, I will report on our new work involving DNA repair enzyme inhibitors which promises to enhance the efficacy of standard platinum-based and radiation therapies.