Synthetic Biopolymer Chemistry
Synthetic Biopolymer Chemistry Core provides small-molecule and peptide synthetic services and computational services for drug discovery and protein biological mechanism studies to scientists at City of Hope.
The Synthetic Biopolymer Chemistry Core focuses on the field of molecular-targeted cancer therapeutics. The core’s efforts in this area can aid and impact advancements in chemical biology, development of lead compounds for drug discovery, and, ultimately, optimization of new drugs for preclinical evaluation.
Hongzhi Li
Associate Research Professor
holi@coh.org
Yuelong Ma
Assistant Research Professor
yma@coh.org
Jun Xie
Assistant Research Professor
jxie@coh.org
Yusuke Higuchi
Assistant Research Professor
yhiguchi@coh.org
Contact the Team
In general, core activities include:
- Providing expertise, consultation and firsthand experience in the area of chemical synthesis and design of peptides
- Offering broad expertise in the custom synthesis of organic-based compounds, with particular emphasis on complex natural products and development of improved synthetic routes
- Providing virtual ligand screening to develop original/novel /new scaffold inhibitors, protein modeling, molecular dynamics simulation, target/off-target prediction of a lead/drug compound, and many other bioinformatics services
- Developing new computational tools for the unique requirements of various principal investigator projects. For example, our in-house-developed virtual screening pipeline (LiVS) has helped PIs find inhibitors with IC50 in nano-mole range for more than 15 proteins (best IC50 reaches 0.5nM and best hit-rate reaches 37.5%)
- Offering the synthesis of labeled compounds and biologicals, such as imaging agents and antibody conjugates
- Providing scale-up protocols for pure materials to be used in preclinical and clinical investigations
- Facilitating collaborations among molecular biologists, chemists, structural biologists, pharmacologists and clinicians
- Supporting small-molecule drug discovery for chemical biology and cancer therapeutics development
- Facilitating the sharing of instruments, methodologies, and chemical insights among PIs throughout City of Hope's comprehensive cancer center
The Synthetic Biopolymer Chemistry Core provides state-of-the-art drug development services that include molecular modeling and synthetic chemistry. The SBC Core works closely with the High Throughput Screening and X-ray Crystallography Cores to develop novel molecularly targeted small molecule and peptide agents. As potential drug candidates, these agents can be further optimized with enhanced physiochemical properties and biological activities. The main goal of this core is to develop novel therapeutics against new cancer targets that are continuously being identified in collaboration with City of Hope's comprehensive cancer center’s biologists.
Current pricing can be found on iLab Solutions.
- Varian High-Field 400 MHz NMR
- Agilent Infinitylab LC/MSD and Preparatory HPLC
- CS136XT
- FTIR, UV/VIS and Polarimeter
In a given year, City of Hope conducts more than 400 clinical trials enrolling more than 6,000 patients.
Ali, S., Zhang, Y., Zhou, M., Li, H., L., Jin, W., Zheng, L. Yu, X., Stark, J., & Shen, B.
Awasthi, S., Singhal, S. S., Singhal, J., Nagaprashanthan L., Li, H., Yuan, Y. C., Liu, Z., Berz, D., Igid, H., Green, W. C., Tijani, L., Tonk, V., Rajan, A., Awasthi, Y., & Singh, S. P.
City of Hope is focused on basic and clinical research in cancer, diabetes and other life-threatening diseases.
