Ph.D. Student Tsung-Jen Liao Publishes First-author Paper in JACS

Tsung-Jen Liao, biophysics Ph.D. student and NCI-UMD Partnership student, published a first-author paper titled "High-Affinity Interactions of the nSH3/cSH3 Domains of Grb2 with the C-Terminal Proline-Rich Domain of SOS1" in the Journal of the American Chemical Society on January 23, 2020. Paper co-authors included NIH's Ruth Nussinov and UMD Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry David Fushman. 

In their paper, the researchers propose that N- and C-terminal SH3 domains (nSH3/cSH3) binding peptides can serve as tumor suppressors. These binding peptides can effectively interrupt the association between Grb2 (an adaptor protein) and Ras-specific guanine nucleotide exchange factor, Son of Sevenless 1 (SOS1). The Grb2–SOS1 mechanism the authors outline offers new venues for future therapeutic strategies for upstream mutations in cancer, such as in EGFR.