The Cancer Biology Graduate Interdisciplinary Program and UArizona Cancer Center presents the following for the Cancer Biology GIDP Seminar Series lecture:
![[Portrait of Rui Xiong, PhD]](/sites/default/files/xiong-rui_-phd_coit_400x600px.png "Rui Xiong, PhD")
Rui Xiong, PhD | Assistant professor, Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology, University of Arizona R. Ken Coit College of Pharmacy
“Cancer Drug Discovery Empowered by High-Throughput Technology”
Monday, Feb. 17, 2025 | 9:00 - 10:00 a.m.
UArizona Cancer Center – Kiewit Auditorium (Room 2951A) or
Join Zoom Meeting: https://arizona.zoom.us/j/89130395406 (Password can be found on the flyer below.)
Cancer Biology GIDP Seminar Series
Fall Instructor: Dr. Nam Lee
Contact: namlee@arizona.ed
About the Presenter
Traditional drug discovery research has focused on inhibiting disease-driving proteins, while chemical tools for activating disease-causing proteins are lacking. The Xiong lab is interested in developing tools to study and mimic how nature selectively activates gene transcription via development of novel technologies to selectively activate therapeutically relevant proteins. It’s focused on the structure-based design of bioactive molecules to modulate disease-causing proteins or genes. Team members use modern molecular biology tools to develop biochemical, biophysical, and cellular assays to screen and optimize molecules for various therapeutic targets. Projects also heavily utilize X-ray crystallography and computational modeling to guide molecule design. Two novel molecules developed from this pipeline successfully entered human clinical trials for treating advanced breast cancer (NCT03201913: Xiong R., et al., J Med Chem. 2016, 59, 219-237; NCT03455270: Xiong R., et al., J Med Chem, 2017, 60, 1325-1342). Current research is focused on the newly NIH RO1-funded project to develop potent SARS-COV-2 PLpro inhibitors.
Flyer for this lecture: 
cancer_biology_gidp_seminar_02.17.25_xiong_flyer.pdf
University of Arizona Cancer Center, Kiewit Auditorium (Room 2951)
1515 N. Campbell Ave.
Tucson, AZ 85719
OR
Virtual: https://arizona.zoom.us/j/89130395406 (see flyer above for password)