Research interest
Target identification
Target identification
Target identification
The research in Professor Ronald J Quinn and Dr Miaomiao Liu’s Laboratory focuses on the development of a native mass spectrometry-based approach for target identification. The group has extended the application of native mass spectrometry to establish a target identification platform that can be applied to identify the molecular target of bioactive molecules without the need to derivatise the molecule.
Reference:
PROTACs
Target identification
Target identification
The research group has successfully detected ternary complex formed between a target protein, a PROteolysis Targeting Chimera (PROTAC) and an E3-ubqiutin ligase by using native mass spectrometry. They Ternary complexes bring the protein target into close proximity to an E3-Ubiquitin ligase, which can ubiquitinylate the protein target and mark it for degradation via the host cell’s proteosome degradation machinery.
Reference:
Natural products
Professor Quinn and Dr Miaomiao Liu's group works on natural products chemistry. They have developed expertise in the application of a diversity of modern analytical chemistry and spectroscopic analysis techniques (particularly chromatography, NMR and mass spectrometry) used to identify complex organic molecules from plants, microbes and marine organisms.
References:
- Miaomiao Liu*, Jianying Han, Yunjiang Feng, Gordon Guymer, Paul I. Forster, and Ronald J. Quinn*. Antimicrobial Benzyltetrahydroisoquinoline-Derived Alkaloids from the Leaves of Doryphora aromatica. J. Nat. Prod. 2021, 84(3): 676-682
- Jianying Han, Miaomiao Liu, Ian D. Jenkins, Xueting Liu,Lixin Zhang, Ronald J. Quinn,* and Yunjiang Feng*. Genome-Inspired Chemical Exploration of Marine Fungus Aspergillus fumigatus MF071. Mar. Drugs 2020, 18(7), 352-361
PhenoTarget
The research group has developed an approach that combines phenotypic-based drug discovery and target-based drug discovery—PhenoTarget screening—to identify active compounds from natural resources. Phenotypic screening is conducted initially to detect cellular active components from a natural product fraction library. Native MS using a protein panel of putative targets provided sufficient throughput to analyze the phenotypic hits.
References:
- Ali R. Elnaas, Darren Grice, Jianying Han, Yunjiang Feng, Angela Di Capua, Tin Mak, Joseph A. Laureanti, Garry W. Buchko, Peter J. Myler, Gregory Cook, Ronald J. Quinn and Miaomiao Liu*. Discovery of a Natural Product That Binds to the Mycobacterium tuberculosis Protein Rv1466 Using Native Mass Spectrometry. Molecules. 2020, 25 (10): 2384-2395
- Yan Xie, Yunjiang Feng, Tin Mak, Garry W. Buchko, Peter J. Myler, Miaomiao Liu and Ronald J. Quinn*. A PhenoTarget Approach for Identifying an Alkaloid Interacting with the Tuberculosis Protein Rv1466. Mar. Drugs. 2020, 18 (3): 149-162