Hadian Group
Research Group Cell Signaling and Chemical Biology
In the Hadian Lab, we study the mechanisms of Cell Death Signaling and translate these findings into future drugs using Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery approaches. We are particularly interested in deciphering the cellular mechanisms controlling Ferroptosis and characterizing regulators of Ubiquitin Signaling in Cell Death processes. In addition, we operate the Compound Screening Platform, giving us strong expertise in high-throughput biochemical screening and high-content phenotypic screening to identify disease-relevant small molecule modulators and highly selective probes.
Our Topics
Research topics:
- Ferroptosis Research: Unraveling mechanisms and cellular regulators that induce or block ferroptosis, a regulated non-apoptotic cell-death pathway.
- Ubiquitin Signaling: Identification and characterization of protein interactions and regulators of ubiquitin signaling pathways mainly implicated in immune response, cancer development and DNA repair.
- Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery: Interrogate biological systems with small molecules to understand underlying mechanistic details and use this information to develop novel therapeutics.
Our Research
Ferroptosis Research
We are interested in deciphering novel mechanisms and cellular regulators of ferroptotic cell death as well as developing tools to precisely detect ferroptosis:
- We use small molecules with known mode of action (Chemical Biology approach) and CRISPR/RNAi technologies (Genetic approach) to identify cellular regulators controlling ferroptosis.
- We develop high-content-imaging tools together with Artificial Intelligence techniques to visualize and classify ferroptosis.
Ubiquitin Research
Our Research concentrates on the identification and characterization of new regulators of ubiquitin signaling pathways implicated in cell death pathways:
- We investigate the functional contribution of E3 Ligases and deubiquitinases (DUBs) to cell death pathways, in particular ferroptosis.
- We utilize proteomics and yeast-2-hybrid screening to identify novel protein-protein interactions and networks in ubiquitin signaling pathways.
- We use target-based as well as high-content phenotypic screening approaches to identify small molecule modulators of ubiquitin signaling.
Drug Development
The Hadian lab interrogates biological systems with small molecules to develop novel therapies. In the past decade, we have initiated and collaborated on a number of drug development studies within the fields of autoimmunity, infectious disease, rare disease, cancer, and more. Several of these studies have yielded patents and are currently at different stages of the drug development pipeline.
In the following are few examples of the current drug development activities:
- The TRAF6-Ubc13 protein-protein-interaction inhibitors developed for the treatment of autoimmune diseases (Rheumatoid Arthritis, Psoriasis, and more) are currently in preclinical lead optimization—patents: WO/2018/050286 and WO/2019/180207
- The SARS-CoV-2 PLpro inhibitor acriflavine is being optimized for clinical application against beta-coronaviruses—patent: WO/2022/129210
- Repurposing of cyclosporin-A as a molecular corrector of mutant ABCA3 may be used to treat genetically caused interstitial lung disease in children
Deputy Director of the Research Unit Signaling and Translation / Group Leader Cell Signaling and Chemical Biology / Head Compound Screening Platform
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Technical Assistant Hadian Lab
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Technical Assistant, IT Administrator Hadian Lab
Doctoral Researcher Hadian Lab
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