Zoran Rankovic
Professor ,Director - Centre for Protein Degradation & Chemical Biology Institute of Cancer Research
Zoran is a Professor of Chemical Biology and Director of the Centre for Protein Degradation (CPD) at the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), London. Prior to joining the ICR, Zoran was Director of Chemistry at St Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, where he established and directed a productive Targeted Protein Degradation program, which developed novel cereblon warheads, PROTACs, and molecular glue clinical candidates. Before St Jude, Zoran was medicinal chemistry director and research fellow in Organon, Schering-Plough, Merck and Eli Lilly. During his over two decades long industrial career Zoran directed teams that delivered multiple clinical candidates over a range of therapeutic areas including oncology, neurodegeneration, psychiatry and cardiovascular disorders. Zoran authored and co-authored over 100 scientific publications, patents, book chapters, and edited two books on drug discovery topics. Zoran’s current research interests focus on expanding and leveraging targeted protein degradation approaches to study cancer biology and develop the next generation of cancer treatments.
Seminars
Join academic KOLs for a discussion on things yet to come for induced proximity therapeutics. Expect to cover next-generation PROTACs, degrader
antibody conjugates, the new focus on cooperative molecular glues, and non-degrading proximity therapeutics. This will be a chance to hear about the latest academic research, opportunities for growth in biopharma, and first-hand opinions from leading pioneers on where the TPD and induced proximity community is headed.
- What criteria and validation strategies should be used to determine whether a novel E3 ligase is suitable for therapeutic development?
- In what ways do novel ligases offer functional or pharmacological advantages over traditional ligases like CRBN or VHL?
- How can we build a compelling case—biologically and commercially—for prioritizing a novel ligase over established workhorses in drug development pipelines?
- Molecular Glue Degrader (MGD) discovery mostly relies on screening-based approaches, such as cell viability assays
- However, one limitation of such screening methods is the risk of overlooking week degraders and non-essential neosubstrates
- To address this risk, we developed a high throughput deep proteomics screening platform utilizing label-free, data-independent acquisition mass spectrometry for integrated proteomics and “ubiquitinomics” analysis
- Extensive analysis of the screening data and learnings from our initial MGD library were deployed into the development of our second-generation MGL. v2, which now contains well over 5,000 compounds
- The library has been screened by high-throughput proteomics, and the general performance of the MGL.v2 and the screening method, as well as the discovery of novel cereblon neosubstrates will be discussed
