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The Centre for Protein Degradation

The Centre for Protein Degradation is a centre of excellence coordinating all aspects of molecularly driven protein degradation, from concept to clinic, both within and beyond the ICR. 

Targeted Protein Degradation (TPD) is a promising drug discovery paradigm which exploits cell’s own protein disposal system to eliminate cancer-causing proteins.

The mission of the Centre for Protein Degradation (CPD) is to advance and deploy TPD approaches to study cancer biology and develop breakthrough cancer treatments for patient benefit. The highly collaborative Centre is linked with the Centre for Cancer Drug Discovery and is designed to leverage broad expertise and capabilities at the ICR and our hospital partner, The Royal Marsden, to develop protein degraders from initial concept to clinic, both within and beyond the ICR.

Our scientists have been amongst the pioneers in this field. The CPD emerged out of years of research by our scientists in the Division of Cancer Therapeutics who have explored targeted degradation as therapeutic modality since 2016. This research led to the discovery of the precursor candidate of the GSPT1 degrader MRT-2359 and a spin-out company, Monte Rosa Therapeutics, who are currently progressing this new drug candidate in Phase I/II clinical trials.

Following the initiation as an academic centre of excellence in 2022, the CPD received a £9 million philanthropic donation by David and Ruth Hill to fund and accelerate its expanding research.

 

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Our research

Protein structure of CRBN-dBET6-BRD4

Research at the Centre for Protein Degradation includes the generation of compound libraries, identification of new cereblon binding chemotypes, using crystallography and cryo-EM to study ternary complexes, and enabling novel E3 ligases for TPD.

Our research

Work with us

Ellie Stammers wearing a lab coat working in the lab

At the Centre for Protein Degradation, we are committed to collaborating on all aspects of degrader research, with a strong focus on the joint discovery of small molecule degraders. Find out how to collaborate with us.

Work with us

Meet the team

Headshot of Professor Zoran Rankovic

Meet our director, Professor Zoran Rankovic, lead chemist, Dr John Caldwell, project manager, Dr Fiona Dziegiel, and our expert researchers.

Meet the team