Targeting Protein-Protein Interactions in Molecular Chaperone Networks

Speaker: Prof. Jason E. Gestwicki, Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases (IND), University of California San Francisco, USA

Talk:  Targeting Protein-Protein Interactions in Molecular Chaperone Networks

Time: 07.04.2025, 15:00 (3:00 pm)

Venue: Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology, Abrahama 58, hall 042B

Jason E. Gestwicki is a Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and the Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases (IND) at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). Professor Gestwicki earned a B.S. in Chemistry from the State University of New York at Fredonia and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from University of Wisconsin-Madison before completing a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University. He began his independent group at the University of Michigan in 2005, where his laboratory developed chemical biology approaches to studying the roles of molecular chaperones in disease. His group developed special expertise in building drug-like small molecules that target protein-protein interactions between molecular chaperones. In 2013, he relocated to UCSF where his laboratory continues to study the mechanisms of protein homeostasis, with a focus on age-associated diseases of protein misfolding. Dr. Gestwicki has published 220+ manuscripts and is an inventor on 15+ patents. He has been active in biotechnology startups, including Amplyx (acquired by Pfizer; 2021) and Viewpoint (acquired by Visus; 2022), and is a consultant for venture capital, pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms. He is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the Cell Stress Society International (CSSI). He was awarded the 2023 E. Thomas Kaiser Award from the Protein Society.