Christianson Lab
Principal Investigator: David W Christianson
Institution: University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA)
Primary Subfield: Molecular & Cell Bio
Recruitment Status: Inquire for rotation/fellowship opportunities
Research Focus
Project Summary This MIRA proposal is intended to replace two R01 grants currently supporting my laboratory, GM49758 and GM56838. The proposed research will explore the structure, mechanism, and inhibition of histone deacetylases (HDACs) 6, 10, and 11, which are critical targets for drug design efforts aimed at developing new approaches to cancer chemotherapy, immune modulation, and the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. In 2024, an HDAC inhibitor was approved for treatment of the first non-cancer indication, Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Accordingly, it is an exciting time to be advancing structure-function studies of these remarkable enzymes – our laboratory has been a leader in these efforts. Additionally, the proposed research will explore the structure, function, and engineering of terpene cyclases, which are unique among enzymes in that they catalyze the most complex carbon-carbon bond forming reactions in nature – on average, more than half of the substrate carbon atoms undergo changes in bonding and/or hybridization during the course of a single, precisely-controlled enzyme-catalyzed reaction. Many terpene natural products exhibit useful pharmaceutical properties, so t…
Active NIH Awards
- 1R35GM163533-01: Structure, Mechanism, and Inhibition of Metal-Dependent Enzymes (2026)
- 5R01GM056838-28: Structure and Function of Biosynthetic Enzymes (2025)
- 5R01GM049758-31: Structure and Function of Metalloenzymes (2025)
- 5R01GM049758-30: Structure and Function of Metalloenzymes (2024)
- 5R01GM056838-27: Structure and Function of Biosynthetic Enzymes (2024)
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