New paper on our Max-directed chemical probe is out in Cell Chemical Biology!

We are very excited to finally share in long-form the story of KI-MS2-008, a Max-directed small molecule probe that attenuates Myc-driven transcription, which is now available for download at Cell Chemical Biology!

This work has been a highly collaborative team effort—originating in the work of many Koehler lab alumni and affiliates; greatly enhanced by the contributions of collaborators at Stanford University, Baylor College of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; and championed by lead authors Nick Struntz and Andrew Chen. We are grateful to the team and extend congratulations to all!

Graphical abstract from our most recent publication on KI-MS2-008 in Cell Chemical Biology.

---

For a non-technical description of this project and its impact, please see our feature on MIT News.

For the short form specifications on the chemical probe and its discovery, please see our new pages for KI-MS2-008 and Max on our probe and target pages, respectively.

To request access to the compound, please visit our contact page.
The compound is not currently available from commercial sources; however, we intend to make the probe available to any colleagues unable to synthesize the molecule who wish to leverage the molecule for their own studies.

Welcome Yulong, Julie, and Florian!

The start of the new year brought three new faces to our team. The lab is pleased to welcome Dr. Yulong Su, Julie Urgiles, and Florian Kabinger!

Yulong received his PhD in in cancer biology from Oregon Health & Science University in 2017. His thesis work was conducted under Dr. Rosalie Sears and detailed previously uncharacterized mechanisms of c-Myc regulation through post-translational modifications that affect localization to the nuclear pore basket. He will be joining the MYC-focused team, where his knowledge of c-Myc biology will be a welcome addition.

Welcome, also, to Julie, a medical student in the Harvard-MIT Health Science & Technology (HST) program.  Julie received a B.S. in Chemistry from Cornell in 2017 and will join our group for the research portion of her training. She will be joining the existing team focused on oncogenic transcription factors in prostate cancer, where she will leverage her skills in synthetic organic chemistry to enable target engagement studies for small molecule probes in development against some of our favorite targets.

And, lastly, welcome, Florian! Florian is a visiting masters students from the University of Applied Sciences in Austria, supported by Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation Fellowship. He brings expertise in molecular biology and biochemistry techniques, which both the adenoid cystic carcinoma team and the prostate cancer team are delighted to fold into ongoing mechanism of action studies for chemical probes currently in development.

Welcome, all!