Assistant Professor of Chemistry
Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley, 2002
(Biological Chemistry, Catalysis)
(206) 543-1653
Email: maly@chem.washington.edu
The Chemical Biology of Signal Transduction
Cells use an elaborate network of signal transduction proteins to sense and respond to their environment. The Maly group aims to understand the enzyme families that are involved in these signaling events. The final goal of these studies is to identify new molecular targets for the treatment of human disease. We integrate techniques from organic chemistry, biochemistry, structural biology, proteomics, and cell biology to develop new tools that provide a greater understanding of diverse signaling processes. Our technological innovations seek to address the limitations of currently existing methods for studying these highly dynamic cellular events. Furthermore, we are using these tools to answer a number of fundamental questions in biology.
All of the projects in the Maly group attempt to answer questions that chemical tools are uniquely positioned to address. For example, we have developed a new method for controlling the activities of signaling enzymes with a cell permeable small molecule. This methodology has been applied to the study of GTPases because there is a dearth of effective pharmacological agents for studying these important and dynamic signaling proteins. Other projects in the lab seek to address the ongoing challenge of drug target validation. One of these projects involves the generation of potent and selective bivalent kinase inhibitors. These reagents allow the phenotypic effects of selectively inhibiting a particular kinase to be rapidly determined. Furthermore, this methodology is being used to uncover the subcellular functions of several clinically-relevant kinases during specific signaling events. Another project seeks to determine which kinase activities are misregulated in human cancer cell models with a general set of molecular probes. By profiling the full complement of kinase activities in cells, we hope to identify and validate new kinase drug targets. Finally, we are developing pharmacological agents that target specific parasite protein kinases in T. gondii, C. parvum, and P. falciparum. We not only hope to validate these kinases as attractive drug targets in these organisms but to develop advanced drug leads for the treatment of cryptosporidiosis, toxoplasmosis, and malaria.
Hill, Z. B.; Perera, B. G. K.; Andrews, S.; Maly, D. J. “Targeting Diverse Signaling Interaction Sites Allows the Rapid Generation of Bivalent Kinase Inhibitors.” ACS Chem. Biol. 2011 (in press).
Hill, Z. B.; Perera, B. G. K.; Maly, D. J. “Bivalent inhibitors of the tyrosine kinases ABL and SRC: Molecular determinants of potency and selectivity.” Mol. BioSyst. 2011, 7, 447-456.
Ranjitkar, P.; Brock, A. M.; Maly, D. J. “Affinity Probes that Target a Specific Inactive Conformation of Protein Kinases.” Chem. Biol. 2010, 17, 195-206.
Goreshnik, I.; Maly, D. J. “A Small Molecule-Regulated Guanine Nucleotide Exchange Factor.” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2010, 132, 938-940.
Hill, Z. B.; Perera, B. G. K.; Maly, D. J. “A Chemical Genetic Method for Generating Bivalent Inhibitors of Protein Kinases.” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2009, 131, 6686-6688. (DOI: 10.1021/ja900871y)
Seeliger, M. A.; Ranjitkar, P.; Kasap. C.; Shan, Y.; Shaw, D. E.; Shah, N. E.; Kuriyan, J.; Maly, D. J. “Equally Potent Inhibition of c-Src and Abl by Compounds that Recognize Inactive Kinase Conformations.” Cancer Res. 2009, 69, 2384-2392.
Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship (2011)
National Science Foundation CAREER Award (2010)
Life Sciences Research Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship (Pfizer Fellow) (2003-06)
Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship (2003)
UC-Berkeley Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award (2001)
Hilldale Undergraduate Research Fellowship (1996)