Dr Andrew Beekman
Lecturer in Medicinal Chemistry
Andrew’s research focuses on developing new techniques to control cancer.
The main goal is the development of new methods to discover small molecules which can control protein-protein interactions. Cancer exploits a number of protein-protein interaction mechanisms to exhibit its hallmarks, such as avoiding apoptosis, or evading the immune system. The manipulation of protein-protein interactions with drugs is a significant challenge to modern medicine, and current techniques are insufficient to quickly identify potential drug leads. Andrew’s group develops and demonstrates new techniques to discover selective potent drug leads. Current projects investigate the following systems.
- The protein-protein interactions which control apoptosis in cancer
- Protein interactions in immune checkpoints
- Protein-protein interactions in telomerase to discover a new paradigm to trigger senescence in cancer
Funders: Big C, Royal Society