Affects of Novel Drugs on YAP-TEAD Binding

Dr. Wells previous master’s student identified a handful of promising drugs that seemed to inhibit YAP-TEAD binding, which is part of the HIPPO pathway that has been indicated in cells that become diseased – whether that be through cancer or through cystic growth like in Polycystic kidney disease, otherwise known as PKD. My project is focused on taking the drugs identified last year and performing experiments to see just how well they inhibit YAP-TEAD binding. If the drugs do show inhibition in this binding pathway, more research will be conducted to examine just how viable they would be as clinical treatments for diseases such as cancer and PKD.