WEHI New Medicines and Diagnostics Special Seminar hosted by Professor Guillaume Lessene

Wenyun Zhang, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow – Department of Pharmacological Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, USA

From PROTACs to Molecular Glues: Chemical Strategies for Induced Proximity and Targeted Protein Degradation

L7W Seminar Room | Bundoora Large Boardroom

Join via TEAMS

Including Q&A session

Please note this presentation will not be recorded

Targeted protein degradation has become an increasingly important approach in drug discovery, with PROTACs offering a modular strategy to induce proximity between target proteins and E3 ligases. In parallel, molecular glues have emerged as small molecules capable of stabilizing or promoting protein–protein interactions, providing new opportunities to access previously challenging targets.

This seminar will present Dr Wenyun Zhang’s recent work on the discovery of molecular glue degraders targeting cancer-relevant proteins, with particular emphasis on chemical approaches that enable selective protein degradation through interaction stabilization. These studies highlight molecular glues as versatile chemical tools for modulating protein function and illustrate their potential for therapeutic development in cancer.

Dr Wenyun Zhang is a chemical biologist specializing in induced proximity strategies and small-molecule drug discovery. He obtained his PhD from the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, where his research focused on synthetic methodology and dearomatization chemistry. He subsequently carried out postdoctoral research at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, developing molecular glues and proximity-inducing degraders targeting cancer-relevant proteins. His work integrates medicinal chemistry and chemical biology to explore new strategies for modulating protein function and protein–protein interactions in disease-relevant pathways.

All welcome!