Research summary
Proteins are life’s little machines. They perform countless tasks, from copying DNA to turning food into energy. So it is no surprise that most molecules involved in drug therapies work by binding to target proteins.
As Canada Research Chair in Biomolecular Structure and Design, Dr. Justin MacCallum’s research program is partly focused on developing new tools for determining protein three-dimensional structure, which is critical for understanding function and for designing drugs. MacCallum’s research also leverages these tools to develop drugs and diagnostics to detect cannabis, diagnose certain forms of arthritis, and develop potential protein-degrading drugs that could lead to new cancer therapies.