Giovanna Zinzalla Project

Chemical Biology of Transcriptional Regulation

My research group is primarily a synthetic chemistry group and our goal is to develop chemical approaches to answer challenging questions in tumor biology, and to open doors to exciting new areas for cancer therapy.

The modulation of Protein-Protein Interactions (PPIs) with synthetic agents has been proved to be a powerful approach to probe cellular functions, and PPIs are considered to be a gold mine of molecular targets for developing new and more-selective chemotherapeutic agents.

In particular, my research programme focuses on the modulation of PPIs that regulate the signalling pathway of transcription factors (TFs) as TFs are the primary drivers of tumorigenesis.

Currently my research projects aim to develop synthetic molecules for inhibition of PPIs that control c-MYC transcriptional activation and to modulating PPIs that are responsible for c-MYC transcriptional repression. c-MYC is a complex signalling pathway, which further understanding hold much promise to deliver the most powerful cancer therapies. My objective is also to use PPI inhibitors to elucidate the interplay of c-MYC with other transcription factors that regulate the survival and growth of cancer cells, playing a key role in another complex aspect of tumor biology as cancer metabolism.

I am looking for motivated students at the master level for project work, and for Erasmus students able to spend at least 6 months in my laboratory. If you are interested in doing a post-doc in the group and have your own funding, or would like to apply for a fellowship together, send me your CV, publication list, and contact information for three references.

Research Collaborations

- Dr Adnane Achour, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden

(biophysical studies)

- Dr Perdita Barran, University of Edinburgh, UK

(biophysical studies)

- Professor Gerard Evan, University of Cambridge, UK

(in vivo studies and c-MYC:MIZ-1 transcriptional repression project)

- European ScreeningPort (ESP), Hamburg, Germany

(in silico studies)

- Professor Lars-Gunnar Larsson, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden

(c-MYC:MAX project)

- Professor Silvio Parodi, University of Genoa, Italy

(c-MYC:INI1/SNF5 project)

- Professor Peter Vogt, The Scripps Research Institute, USA

(c-MYC:MAX project)

Biography

Dr Zinzalla obtained her first class honours Laurea in Chemistry (equivalent to MChem) from the University of Milan and carried out her PhD studies with Professor Stefano Maiorana also at the University of Milan. For her PhD research she was awarded the Young Researcher Award by the Italian Ministry of Education and Science. Her research focused on the development of metal complex conjugates of Peptide Nucleic Acids as novel biosensors, and she investigated novel traceless linkers for solid-phase synthesis of drug-like small molecules in collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline.

In 2004 she was awarded a Marie Curie EIF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship and appointed as Postdoctoral Research Assistant at the University of Cambridge with Professor Steven Ley. Here she initiated a new project focused on exploring the role of molecular diversity in drug discovery, with the design of natural product-like small molecules as novel therapeutic agents. In 2006 she then joined the Cancer Research UK (CR UK) Group directed by Professor David Thurston as a Senior Research Fellow at UCL School of Pharmacy. As co-PI of a CR UK Small Molecule Drug Discovery Initiative Programme she led research projects aimed at discovering PPI inhibitors of transcriptional factors such as Hypoxia Inducible Factor 1 (HIF-1) and Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription 3 (STAT3). Since January 2012 she has held a Forskare position as Assistant Professor (Senior) in Chemical Biology, as a member of the Centre for Advanced Cancer Therapies (ACT!).

Professional Affiliations

Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), the American Chemical Society (ACS), the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR), and the Marie Curie Fellow Association (MCFA).

Areas of Expertise

Synthetic and medicinal chemistry, Protein-Protein Interactions, Drug Discovery, Cancer Research

Selected publications