Upcoming Seminar
Histone Deacetylase Enzymes: Anti-cancer Drug Design
Dr. Mary Kay Pflum, Wayne State University
May 4, 2022
4:00pm in HSCI-105
Histone deacetylase (HDAC) enzymes are key players in cancer progression and have emerged recently as targets for anti-cancer drugs. In fact, four drugs are currently used clinically to treat leukemia and lymphoma. Despite the successes of HDAC inhibitors as therapeutics, the clinical drugs manifest significant side effects. One factor leading to the clinical side effects is the non-specific inhibition of the eleven HDAC proteins (HDAC1 – HDAC11) in human cells. There is still a lack of selective inhibitor compounds targeting only select HDAC proteins among the eleven HDAC family members, which could overcome side effect issues. Beyond drug design, selective inhibitor compounds as useful biomedical tools to study the biological functions of HDAC enzymes in normal biology and cancer. The goal is this project is to identify inhibitors that selectively target only one or only a few HDAC enzymes. Towards this goal, we have synthesized a variety of small molecule HDAC inhibitors and evaluated their potencies. In this talk, the identification of dual HDAC6/HDAC8-selective inhibitors is highlighted (see Negmeldin et al. Eur. J. Med Chem, 2018, 143, 1790-1806). Through inhibitor development, the HDAC project in the Pflum lab will deepen our understanding of cancer onset and progression, while also assisting in the development of next generation cancer therapeutics.

Seminars are held on Wednesdays at 4:00pm. All are invited to attend.
For seminars held via Zoom, faculty, staff, alumni, and students of the department will automatically receive a weekly invitation via email. All others may email the Seminar Coordinator for invitation.
Seminar Coordinator
For information and suggestions about our Department Seminar series, please contact the seminar coordinator:
- Prof. Katarzyna Slowinska
- Katarzyna.Slowinska@csulb.edu
Schedule for Spring 2022
Date | Title | Speaker and Affiliation |
---|---|---|
May 4, 2022 | Histone Deacetylase Enzymes: Anti-cancer Drug Design | Dr. Mary Kay Pflum, Wayne State University |
Previous Seminars
Date | Title | Speaker and Affiliation |
---|---|---|
April 27, 2022 | Exploring Color and Heat Reflectance Tunability of "Cool" Pigments | Dr. Joya Cooley, CSU Fullerton |
April 20, 2022 | Exploring the Biochemical Environment of Insulin Secretory Vesicles | Dr. Kate White, USC |
April 13, 2022 | Electrification and Decarbonization of Chemical Synthesis | Dr. Karthish Manthiram, Cal Tech |
March 23, 2022 | Atomic and nanoscale characterization of chemical segregation in multiphase ceramics and nanocomposite functional oxides by TEM | Dr. William Bowman, UC Irvine |
March 16, 2022 | Strategies and Methods for Bioactive Diterpenoids | Dr. Chris Vanderwal, UC Irvine |
March 9, 2022 | Heterogeneous materials for electrochemical catalysis – using simple tools to understand complex interfaces | Dr. Eleanor Gillette, University of San Diego |
March 2, 2022 | Dynamic catalytic interfaces: ensembles of metastable states break the rules of catalysis | Dr. Anastassia Alexandrova, UCLA |
February 23, 2022 | Problematic Proteins: Mechanisms of Protein Aggregation and Dysfunction in Cellular Models of Neurodegenration | Dr. Danny Hatters, University of Melbourne |
February 16, 2022 | Complex Chemical Mixtures - What is Inside of Them? | Dr. Petr Vozka, CSU Los Angeles |
February 9, 2022 | Efficient quantum dynamics for two-dimensional electronic and vibrational spectroscopies | Dr. Tomislav Begusic, Cal Tech |
The Seminar Archive has Department Seminars from previous semesters.