Topics and Expertise: caspases

School scientists recently uncovered how neurons normally recycle old proteins, and how this process goes awry in Alzheimer's disease, leading to the toxic building of protein fragments in the brain.

New research support awarded to the UCSF School of Pharmacy by the National Institutes of Health during the 2011 fiscal year included these on-going projects by faculty in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry:

A technology developed in the laboratory of James Wells, PhD, chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, UCSF School of Pharmacy, will drive a new approach to cancer treatment that switches on or triggers, with small molecules, the enzymes called caspases that promote cell death.

Research directed by senior author James Wells, PhD, chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, UCSF School of Pharmacy, has opened the door to a new way of studying and better understanding the processes of cell death (apoptosis), blood clotting, and other biochemical pathways.