Distillery spotlight: new ubiquitin-modulating mechanisms from academia

Therapeutic targets that regulate protein degradation by controlling the addition or removal of ubiquitin markers were a recurring theme among papers published in 2023 and captured in BioCentury’s Distillery.

E3 ubiquitin ligases, most of which tag proteins for destruction by the proteasome, are a major focus for companies developing targeted protein degrader therapies. Companies in the booming molecular glue and proteolysis targeting chimera (PROTAC) degrader fields have largely used one of two E3 ligases, cereblon and vHL, as endogenous tools to degrade targets of interest...