Research Projects
Our challenge is developing new chemical tools to study and manipulate biological systems that have not been tractable.
Project 3. Design and Molecular Evolution of Synthetic Oligomers for Manipulating Biological Functions
Ongoing project 1: Exploration of biostable synthetic oligomers that are mainly composed of D-amino acid residues
Peptides containing D-amino acids, which are enantiomers of proteinogenic L-amino acids, are not recognized by proteases and are highly stable in vivo. Besides, peptides containing D-amino acids have been suggested to be of low immunogenicity. Therefore, peptides containing D-amino acids are synthetic oligomers of great potential for new therapeutics. We are conducting screening efforts of a large library of peptides containing D-amino acids to discover bioactive compounds. Thus far, we have successfully discovered a peptide that inhibits protein-protein interaction of MDM2 and p53. This research would allow rapid discovery of highly stable bioactive peptides for new therapeutics.
