I've been working with the BioFocus group at Chesterford Park (now part of Charles River) thinking about ligands for Protein Protein Interactions, some of the work was described on a poster at the 18th Cambridge Medicinal Chemistry Meeting held in Cambridge in September this year. The poster is now available online http://www.criver.com/files/pdfs/nonsource/do-privileged-ppi-scaffolds-exist.aspx

Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) are ubiquitous in cellular biochemistry; however they are often difficult drug targets to interrogate due to their unique molecular topologies. A consequence is that low hit rates are frequently observed in PPI HTS campaigns and there remains an unmet need for innovative small molecule PPI inhibitors (SMPPIIs). The term "privileged scaffold" was coined in 1988 when core structures were found to bind to more than one receptor with high affinity. This led us to pose the question: “Do privileged PPI scaffolds exist?”

A brilliant group of scientists to work with, many stimulating discussions in a very important area.