Keynote Speakers

Dr. Dalby is the Johnson & Johnson Professor of Pharmacy at UT Austin. He is a distinguished chemist and a recognized expert in protein kinase biochemistry, signaling, and enzymology. He directs the Targeted Therapeutic Drug Discovery & Development Program (TTP). Dr. Dalby's current research is dedicated to developing novel covalent ERK inhibitors to target the ERK pathway, driven by RAS mutations. His work aims to characterize the chemical and allosteric mechanisms involved in this process. Additionally, Dr. Dalby investigates the dysregulation of translation elongation in chronic neurological conditions and various cancers. His studies focus on the phosphorylation of eEF2 on Thr-56, a crucial regulatory mechanism affecting protein synthesis. He has discovered novel regulatory mechanisms of eEF2K, an atypical protein kinase, and is working on therapeutic strategies targeting eEF2K for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases and malignancies. Since 2011, Dr. Dalby has led TTP, providing specialized resources for cancer drug discovery to Texas institutions. TTP supports preclinical research, high-throughput screening, lead development, and target validation.

 

Lecture Title: The Regulation of Translation Elongation: Opportunities for Therapeutic Development

 

 

 

 

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Wenshe Liu, Ph.D.

Harry E. Bovay, Jr. Endowed Chair and Professor in Chemistry

Texas A&M University | Dr. Wenshe Liu

Department of Chemistry, Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics, Department of Molecular & Cellular Medicines, Department of Translational Medical Sciences, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Institute of Biosciences & Technology, Texas A&M University

Dr. Wenshe Ray Liu is the Harry E. Bovay, Jr. Endowed Chair and Professor in Chemistry at Texas A&M University. He earned his B.S. degree from Peking University in 2000 and his Ph.D. degree from UC-Davis in 2005. He finished a two-year postdoc training in the Scripps Research Institute and started

his independent research career in 2007 at Texas A&M University as Assistant Professor. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2013 and then Full Professor in 2016. Dr. Liu was the inauguralholder of the Emile & Marta Schweikert Professorship from 2014 to 2018, Gradipore Chair in Chemistry from 2018 to 2022, and the inaugural holder of the Harry E. Bovay, Jr. Endowed Chair in Chemistry since 2022 at Texas A&M University.The focus of his research is to invent novel chemical biology techniques to study posttranslational modifications of chromatin and build generally applied platforms for the identification of therapeutics for cancer and infectious diseases. His drug discovery research focuses on unnatural phage display-based drug discovery and the development of small molecules and PROTACs as therapeutics. Dr. Liu has received multiple awards including an NSF CAREER Award, Biomatrick Distinguished Professor Award, and several internal awards from Texas A&M University.

 

Lecture Title: Targeting YEATS – An Epigenetic Reader Domain for Anti-Cancer Drug Discovery