Professor Laura Itzhaki - Group Leader
Professor of Structural Pharmacology
Head of the Department
Please note that Professor Laura Itzhaki is on sabbatical until 2026. All correspondence to the Head of Department should be emailed to Professor Ewan St John Smith, HoD@phar.cam.ac.uk.
Member of:
E-mail: lsi10 [at] cam.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1223 334017
Fax: +44 (0)1223 334100
Keywords
Tandem-repeat proteins, protein engineering, protein folding, protein design, protein-protein interactions, molecular therapeutics, targeted protein degradation, biomolecular condensates
Investigator biography
Laura did her PhD with Dr Phil Evans, Department of Biochemistry, Cambridge, and then moved to a postdoc in the Department of Chemistry with Prof. Sir Alan Fersht. She subsequently held a Beit Memorial Fellowship in Medical Research and then an MRC Career Development Award, with which she started her own group.
In 2003 she moved to the MRC Cancer Cell Unit in Cambridge and briefly returned to the the Department of Chemistry, before taking up a Lectureship in the Department of Pharmacology in 2013. Laura is co-Director of Cambridge Academy of Therapeutics Sciences. In October 2020 she became Head of Department of Pharmacology.
Research summary
Our research focuses on a class of proteins with very distinctive architectures, known as tandem-repeat proteins. Our group and others have shown that the simple modular, one-dimensional architecture of tandem-repeat proteins gives them distinctive properties that make it uniquely straightforward to map the energetics of their structures and to rationally redesign their stability, folding and binding function.
This class of proteins is thus an exceptionally sensitive and versatile tool that we are now exploiting to dissect otherwise intractable cellular mechanisms. We are also exploring how to exploit the extraordinary design-ability of these proteins for biomedical and biotechnology applications.
Lab Members
Dr Pam Rowling, Laura Blenkarn, Mateo Hoare, Chris Ng, Dr Boguslawa Korona, Dr Luisa Capalbo, Dr Maria Zacharopoulou, Dr Andrew Baker, Adrian Ho, Yawei Qi, Marco Tsang, Ying Kok, Chloe Burgess
Selected recent publications
- Development of constrained peptide inhibitors targeting an oncogenic E3 ubiquitin ligase, G. Zenkeviciute, W. Xu, J. Iegre, H. Seki, Y. S. Tan, P. J. E. Rowling, F. Ferrer, C. Verma, D. R. Spring, H. Laman, L. S. Itzhaki, bioRxiv 2023, 2023.04.27.535981
- Burbidge O., M. W. Pastok, S. L. Hodder, G. Zenkevičiūtė, M. E. M. Noble, J. A. Endicott, and L. S. Itzhaki. Nanobodies restore stability to cancer-associated mutants of tumor suppressor protein p16INK4a. Pre-print.
- Synakewicz M., R. S. Eapen, A. Perez-Riba, P. J. E. Rowling, D. Bauer, A. Weißl, G. Fischer, M. Hyvönen, M. Rief, L. S. Itzhaki, and J. Stigler. Unraveling the mechanics of a repeat-protein nanospring: from folding of individual repeats to fluctuations of the superhelix. ACS Nano, 16(3): 3895-3905, 2022.
- Ripka J. F., A. Perez-Riba, P. K. Chaturbedy, and L. S. Itzhaki. Testing the length limit of loop grafting in a helical repeat protein. Curr. Res. Struct. Biol., 3(1): 30-40, 2021
- Smith B. M., P. J. E. Rowling, C. M. Dobson, and L. S. Itzhaki. Parallel and sequential pathways of molecular recognition of a tandem-repeat protein and its intrinsically disordered binding partner. Biomolecules, 11(6):827, 2021.
- Diamante, A., P. Chaturbedy, P. Rowling, J. Kumita, R. S. Eapen, S. H. McLaughlin, M. de la Roche, A. Perez-Riba, and L. S. Itzhaki. Engineering mono- and multi-valent inhibitors on a modular scaffold. Chem. Sci., 12(3):880-895, 2021.
- Perez-Riba, A., E. Komives, E. R. G. Main and L. S. Itzhaki. Decoupling a tandem-repeat protein: Impact of multiple loop insertions on a modular scaffold. Sci. Rep., 9:15439, 2019.
- Perez-Riba, A., A. R. Lowe, E. R. G. Main, and L. S. Itzhaki. Context-dependent energetics of loop extensions in a family of tandem-repeat proteins. Biophys. J., 114(11):2552-2562, 2018.
- Perez-Riba, A., M. Synakewicz, and L. S. Itzhaki. Opinion piece: Folding cooperativity and allosteric function in the tandem-repeat protein class. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B, 373:20170188, 2018.
- Xu, W., Y. Heng Lau, G. Fischer, Y. S. Tan, A. Chattopadhyay, M. de la Roche, M. Hyvönen, C. S. Verma, D. R. Spring, and L. S. Itzhaki. Macrocyclized extended peptide Inhibiting the substrate-recognition domain of tankyrase. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 139(1):2245-2256, 2017.
Funding
We are grateful for generous funding from the following:
