Molecular dynamics simulation of the PUMA (BBC3) BH3 domain binding to the BH3 binding groove of the mitochondrial permeabilizer Bak Cutting-edge technologies for therapeutic discovery

Researchers in the Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics are developing and applying 21st-century technologies to study therapeutic targets and their inhibitors. This ranges from supercomputing for structure-aided drug design and 3D electron microscopy for assessing disease-associated pathologies to novel algorithms for inferring transcription factor activation.

Focus areas

Areas of research that Mayo Clinic's Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics are exploring include:

  • Pharmacogenomics (molecular basis of individual variation in response to drugs).
  • Cause and effects of DNA instability in human disease.
  • Supercomputer-based approaches to rational drug design.
  • Interaction of drugs and hormones with the genome, biology and toxicology of the cholinergic synapse.
  • Cell signaling in G protein-coupled and tyrosine kinase receptor systems.
  • Mechanisms of novel targeted cancer chemotherapeutics.
  • Molecular biology of alcohol metabolism.
  • Antidepressant drug action and resistance.
  • Cellular and molecular biology of cardioprotection.
  • Role of epigenetic changes in degenerative diseases and cancer.
  • Systems pharmacology.

Laboratories

Research groups and laboratories associated with the department include: