Jonathan Lee Yang

I am working on a generalizable platform to selectively degrade proteins relevant to human diseases such as cancer and diabetes. Traditionally, proteins relevant to disease progression are inhibited by small molecules or antibodies. However, in the past two decades, a more potent strategy that utilizes a cell’s machinery (e.g.,. proteosome or lysosome) to degrade relevant proteins has emerged. I am designing a new targeted protein degradation platform that retains the same potency towards degrading harmful proteins as its predecessors but is only activated in the disease microenvironment. This approach would have several benefits including reduced off-target effects and allowing for new protein targets.