Research topic 3: New pharmaceutical concepts in oncology

While the results of our scientific work primarily establish or modify fundamental models of the mode of action of MYC and the course of transcription, they also provide opportunities for the development of new pharmaceutical concepts. Thus, the identification of tumor-relevant target genes as well as of interaction partners of MYC offer new therapeutic targets. However, many interaction partners of MYC, as well as MYC itself, are difficult drug targets, as they often lack an enzymatic mechanism of action. We, therefore, investigated whether the new substance class of "PROTACs" can be used to reduce the concentration of MYC and its interaction partners in tumors in a therapeutically relevant way. A PROTAC directed against the MYC-interacting Aurora-A protein has already shown very promising properties.