QBI presents a seminar with Ryan Potts, Vice President and Head of the Induced Proximity Platform (IPP) at Amgen.

Dr. Potts obtained his B.S. in Biology from the University of North Carolina and his Ph.D. in Cell Regulation from UT Southwestern Medical Center in 2007. In 2008 he was awarded the Sara and Frank McKnight junior faculty position at UT Southwestern Medical Center. During this time his lab focused on answering a long-standing question in cancer biology regarding the cellular function of cancer-testis antigen (CTAs) proteins. Specifically, he discovered a novel family of E3 ubiquitin ligase adaptors known as melanoma antigen genes (MAGEs). In 2011 he was appointed Assistant Professor in the Departments of Physiology, Pharmacology, and Biochemistry at UT Southwestern Medical Center as the Michael L. Rosenberg Scholar in Medical Research and a CPRIT Scholar in Cancer Research. In 2016, Dr. Potts' lab moved to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital where he was an Associate Member in the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology and honored with the American Cancer Society Research Scholar Award. His lab continued to work on MAGEs and CTAs, with a focus on elucidating the biochemical, cellular, physiological and pathological functions of the MAGE gene family at St. Jude until he moved to Amgen.

Talk Title: 'Any target, every time': How proximity-based therapeutics has redefined druggability

We are entering a new wave of drug discovery that paves the way for novel treatments aimed at disease targets currently viewed as "undruggable". Induced proximity medicines have the potential to unlock the "undruggable" disease targets through working differently than conventional medicines that zero in on a single target. Multispecific medicines work through induced proximity that bring two things together: a disease target and an effector that acts on the target. Outcomes on the disease target can be diverse: destruction (targeted protein degradation; PROTACs, molecular glues, etc...), activation, inactivation, and relocation. The potential for multispecific drugs is enormous and extends beyond just proteins to RNA and other biomolecules. As Head of the IPP, Dr. Potts leads Amgen's efforts in these areas.

Host: Michelle Arkin