Abstract

Chemical Probes for Epigenetics

Dafydd Owen, Associate Research Fellow, Pfizer Ltd

Research into the role of epigenetics in disease could be significantly accelerated if cell active chemical probes for such targets were available to the broader research community, through a collaborative, open innovation model. As one of the Pharma partners for the Structural Genomics Consortium, Pfizer has contributed chemical probes for epigenetics through this model and has disclosed novel compounds for both bromodomains and histone methyltransferases (BRD4, SMARCA, BRPF1 and SETD7). This talk will review how we’ve found hits, what it takes to nominate a chemical probe and how both internal and external collaboration has helped find novel phenotypes for these first in class molecules.