Stephan Hacker
banner
stephanhacker2.bsky.social
Stephan Hacker
@stephanhacker2.bsky.social
Assistant Professor at Leiden University. Covalent inhibitors and chemoproteomics for antibiotics. Views my own. he/him/his. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5420-4824
Amazing paper by the groups of Li Ye and Ben Cravatt of @scripps.edu in @cp-cell.bsky.social. They developed the vCATCH method to map in vivo, to which tissues and cell types #CovalentInhibitors bind with spatial resolution in whole intact mouse bodies. www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
#ChemSky #ChemBio
Mapping cellular targets of covalent cancer drugs in the entire mammalian body
vCATCH is a volumetric tissue labeling technique enabling cellular-resolution mapping of covalent drug targets throughout the entire mammalian body.
www.cell.com
December 23, 2025 at 10:40 AM
Exciting news that @fda.gov has approved the first oral GLP-1 agonist for clinical use for @novonordisk.bsky.social.
www.novonordisk.com/content/nnco...

It was amazing to hear about the science behind these medications directly from Lotte Bjerre Knudsen in her @led3hub.bsky.social Lecture.
News Details
www.novonordisk.com
December 23, 2025 at 7:11 AM
Join us for #Biochemistry2026 by @gdchbiochem.bsky.social with a great lineup of speakers:
J. Andexer, H. Bode, S. Hammer, A. Kawamura, A. Deliz Liang, C. de Oliveira Mann, S. Raunser, S. Schwartz, P. Stallforth, C. Tisné, S. Virdee and W. van der Donk. (1/2)
veranstaltungen.gdch.de/microsite/in...
Are you interested in cutting-edge #Biochemistry and #ChemBio? Join us for the GDCh #Biochemistry2026 conference in Würzburg on March 16th to 18th, 2026.

Registration is now open and you can submit an abstract until January 10th, 2026: veranstaltungen.gdch...
(1/2)
December 23, 2025 at 6:53 AM
Excited to be part of the @led3hub.bsky.social of @leidenscience.bsky.social and of the organizing committee of the #LED3Lectures and #LED3Symposium. I am convinced that these are amazing initiatives that strengthen our collaborative spirit. New exciting activities are coming in 2026 and 2027.
Another exciting year for our LED3 hub comes to a close. We were able to celebrate many successes including grants, publications, awards and started companies. In 2025, the activities of LED3 were also formalized in the theme "Drug Discovery and Development" of @leidenscience.bsky.social. (1/3)
December 23, 2025 at 6:32 AM
Reposted by Stephan Hacker
Excited about this work. Lots of cool potential directions
Exciting @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social by the group of Gunda Georg. They developed a tissue-specific PROTAC that recruits the E3 ligase scaffolding protein MAGEA11 that is highly expressed in many cancers and otherwise only in sperm and placenta. www.biorxiv.org/cont...
#TPD #ChemSky #ChemBio
Design of Tissue-Selective PROTACs Through Recruiting E3 Ligase Scaffolding Protein MAGEA11
Proteolysis targeting chimeras (PROTACs) are an emerging therapeutic modality that induces protein degradation by recruiting E3 ligases. Most reported PROTACs recruit ubiquitously expressed E3 ligases, such as cereblon and the von Hippel-Lindau tumor suppressor. Of the additional 600+ E3 ligases, recruiting those with tissue-restricted expression is attractive for increasing the specificity of PROTACs. To this end, tissue-specific E3 ligases or E3 ligase-associated proteins that can be recruited for targeted protein degradation need to be identified. This work describes the first reported PROTAC that recruits the tissue-specific E3 ligase scaffolding protein MAGEA11. As an initial demonstration, a library of bromodomain and extra-terminal domain (BET)-targeting PROTACs that recruit MAGEA11 was synthesized. The library was screened in osteosarcoma U2OS cells, identifying lead compound 105B. 105B potently degrades BET proteins in U2OS osteosarcoma cell lines (BRD4 DC50 = 0.130 nM, Dmax = 78%) and KYSE180 esophageal squamous cell carcinoma cell lines (DC50 = 40 nM, Dmax = 70%), but shows no degradation in non-cancerous, MAGEA11-deficient HEK293T cells. Mechanistic studies confirmed 105B’s dependence on the ubiquitin-proteasome system and engagement of both MAGEA11 and BRD4. 105B decreased levels of BET-regulated gene products c-Myc, RUNX2, and KRT14; however, improvements are still necessary to affect selective cytotoxicity. This work reports the first example of a PROTAC recruiting a tissue-specific E3 ligase for cancer-restricted degradation of BET proteins and highlights the need for further development of MAGEA11-recruiting degraders. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. * BCL-xL : B-cell lymphoma extra-large BET : Bromodomain and extra-terminal domain BD1, BD2 : Bromodomain 1, bromodomain 2 BRD2, BRD3, BRD4, BRDT : Bromodomain-containing proteins 2, 3, 4, and testis-specific (T) c-Myc : Myc proto-oncogene protein DC50 : Half-maximal degradation concentration DHFR : Dihydrofolate reductase Dmax : Maximum degradation achieved DMSO : Dimethyl sulfoxide E2F1 : E2F transcription factor 1 ESCC : Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma HER2 : Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 HUWE1 : HECT, UBA, and WWE domain-containing E3 ubiquitin-protein ligase 1 IAP : Inhibitor of apoptosis protein Ki : Inhibition constant KRT14 : Keratin 14 MAGE : Melanoma antigen gene family MAGEA11 : Melanoma antigen family member A11 PEG : Polyethylene glycol PHOTAC : Photo-controllable proteolysis-targeting chimera PCF11 : Cleavage and polyadenylation factor 11 POI : Protein of interest PROTAC : Proteolysis-targeting chimera RUNX2 : Runt-related transcription factor 2 VHL : von Hippel–Lindau tumor suppressor protein National Institutes of Health, https://ror.org/01cwqze88, R35 GM140837-01, 5T32GM132029-06, T32GM008347
www.biorxiv.org
December 23, 2025 at 5:01 AM
Interesting paper by the group of Jerome Waser (@lcsolab.bsky.social) in @jacs.acspublications.org. They conjugated hypervalent iodine-based ethynylbenziodoxolones (EBXs) to a peptide binder for KEAP1 to establish covalent peptide binders and traceless labeling reagents. pubs.acs.org/doi/10....
December 22, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Reposted by Stephan Hacker
Are you interested in cutting-edge #Biochemistry and #ChemBio? Join us for the GDCh #Biochemistry2026 conference in Würzburg on March 16th to 18th, 2026.

Registration is now open and you can submit an abstract until January 10th, 2026: veranstaltungen.gdch...
(1/2)
December 22, 2025 at 11:00 AM
Interesting article by the American Peptide Society about the recent publication by the group of @sebastianpomplun.bsky.social of our @led3hub.bsky.social on using BindCraft to predict #peptide binders to high value protein targets.
americanpeptidesociety.org/aps-news/bin...
December 21, 2025 at 5:29 AM
Reposted by Stephan Hacker
Proof of the daily, routine, undeniable fact that science works, it's critical, it's vital.
Great news in the fight against antimicrobial resistance!

Two oral antibiotics have been approved by the FDA for uncomplicated urogenital gonorrhea. As Neisseria gonorrhoeae is becoming resistant to all known antibiotics, such breakthroughs were urgently needed. (1/4)
www.fda.gov/news-events/...
December 19, 2025 at 5:24 PM
Are you interested in using #ChemBio to study Biology?

Uni Konstanz and Uni Wien have a new research program on "Chemical and Biological Principles of Cellular Trigger Responses” with 20 PhD positions: www.chembiol.uni-konstanz.de/about-us/app...

#Chemistry #Biology #ChemBio #Trigger #PhD #postdoc
December 19, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Great news in the fight against antimicrobial resistance!

Two oral antibiotics have been approved by the FDA for uncomplicated urogenital gonorrhea. As Neisseria gonorrhoeae is becoming resistant to all known antibiotics, such breakthroughs were urgently needed. (1/4)
www.fda.gov/news-events/...
December 19, 2025 at 12:09 PM
Exciting @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social by the group of Gunda Georg. They developed a tissue-specific PROTAC that recruits the E3 ligase scaffolding protein MAGEA11 that is highly expressed in many cancers and otherwise only in sperm and placenta. www.biorxiv.org/cont...
#TPD #ChemSky #ChemBio
Design of Tissue-Selective PROTACs Through Recruiting E3 Ligase Scaffolding Protein MAGEA11
Proteolysis targeting chimeras (PROTACs) are an emerging therapeutic modality that induces protein degradation by recruiting E3 ligases. Most reported PROTACs recruit ubiquitously expressed E3 ligases, such as cereblon and the von Hippel-Lindau tumor suppressor. Of the additional 600+ E3 ligases, recruiting those with tissue-restricted expression is attractive for increasing the specificity of PROTACs. To this end, tissue-specific E3 ligases or E3 ligase-associated proteins that can be recruited for targeted protein degradation need to be identified. This work describes the first reported PROTAC that recruits the tissue-specific E3 ligase scaffolding protein MAGEA11. As an initial demonstration, a library of bromodomain and extra-terminal domain (BET)-targeting PROTACs that recruit MAGEA11 was synthesized. The library was screened in osteosarcoma U2OS cells, identifying lead compound 105B. 105B potently degrades BET proteins in U2OS osteosarcoma cell lines (BRD4 DC50 = 0.130 nM, Dmax = 78%) and KYSE180 esophageal squamous cell carcinoma cell lines (DC50 = 40 nM, Dmax = 70%), but shows no degradation in non-cancerous, MAGEA11-deficient HEK293T cells. Mechanistic studies confirmed 105B’s dependence on the ubiquitin-proteasome system and engagement of both MAGEA11 and BRD4. 105B decreased levels of BET-regulated gene products c-Myc, RUNX2, and KRT14; however, improvements are still necessary to affect selective cytotoxicity. This work reports the first example of a PROTAC recruiting a tissue-specific E3 ligase for cancer-restricted degradation of BET proteins and highlights the need for further development of MAGEA11-recruiting degraders. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. * BCL-xL : B-cell lymphoma extra-large BET : Bromodomain and extra-terminal domain BD1, BD2 : Bromodomain 1, bromodomain 2 BRD2, BRD3, BRD4, BRDT : Bromodomain-containing proteins 2, 3, 4, and testis-specific (T) c-Myc : Myc proto-oncogene protein DC50 : Half-maximal degradation concentration DHFR : Dihydrofolate reductase Dmax : Maximum degradation achieved DMSO : Dimethyl sulfoxide E2F1 : E2F transcription factor 1 ESCC : Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma HER2 : Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 HUWE1 : HECT, UBA, and WWE domain-containing E3 ubiquitin-protein ligase 1 IAP : Inhibitor of apoptosis protein Ki : Inhibition constant KRT14 : Keratin 14 MAGE : Melanoma antigen gene family MAGEA11 : Melanoma antigen family member A11 PEG : Polyethylene glycol PHOTAC : Photo-controllable proteolysis-targeting chimera PCF11 : Cleavage and polyadenylation factor 11 POI : Protein of interest PROTAC : Proteolysis-targeting chimera RUNX2 : Runt-related transcription factor 2 VHL : von Hippel–Lindau tumor suppressor protein National Institutes of Health, https://ror.org/01cwqze88, R35 GM140837-01, 5T32GM132029-06, T32GM008347
www.biorxiv.org
December 19, 2025 at 10:00 AM
Reposted by Stephan Hacker
Congratulations to the LED3 members that received NWO XS grants:
@mads-chem.bsky.social - Inhibiting the growth of brain tumours
Margo Dona - Rapid personalised treatment for anaplastic thyroid cancer
Sandra Irmisch - Producing rare substances for medicines

www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2025...
Eleven Open Competition Domain Science XS grants for Leiden researchers
Eleven researchers from Leiden University have been awarded an Open Competition Domain Science ENW XS grant by the Dutch Research Council for their research projects. They are researching how to make ...
www.universiteitleiden.nl
December 19, 2025 at 9:51 AM
Reposted by Stephan Hacker
Many people are turning to ‘heating hacks’.
The truth about ‘miracle’ heaters and wood stoves
Many people are turning to ‘heating hacks’.
tcnv.link
December 19, 2025 at 7:59 AM
Interesting @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social by the group of Michael Taylor. They developed a photocatalytic process for labeling tryptophans in living cells using their chemistry based on N-substituted pyridinium salts. Great application of an organic, cationic photosensitizer.
Cation-Cation Photosensitization for Protein Ligation and Intracellular Catalysis
We report here a photosensitized strategy for protein labelling in which N-substituted pyridinium salts are activated using a 2,4-diaryl-N-methyl quinolinium scaffold. Structure-reactivity relationships were performed to optimize the sensitizer structure, and ultimately generated a system that gives protein labelling in minutes at micromolar reagent concentrations. Mechanistic studies suggest a photo-induced electron transfer-based sensitization mechanism. The mildness of this system enabled us to assay sensitization both on individual biomolecules and in complex proteomes and demonstrated excellent compatibility with lysate- and the live-cell-based systems. Imaging of photolabelled HeLa cells were performed and revealed that catalysis occurs in multiple cellular compartments. Chemical proteomics performed at the lysate level resulted in the enrichment of 319 proteins with a 93% selectivity to Tryptophan residues. Live cell labelling resulted in 101 enriched proteins, primarily from the nucleus. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. National Institute of General Medical Sciences, R35 GM143120 U.S. National Science Foundation, https://ror.org/021nxhr62, CHE-2302483, 1920234, 840336, 9214383, 9729350
www.biorxiv.org
December 18, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Reposted by Stephan Hacker
New Publication from our LED3 hub!

The group of @sebastianpomplun.bsky.social published "ReCHEMbinant stapling enhances intracellular delivery and bioactivity of engineered protein inhibitors" in the journal Chem.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

#ChemSky #ChemBio #DrugDiscovery #MYC #Cancer
ReCHEMbinant stapling enhances intracellular delivery and bioactivity of engineered protein inhibitors
Protein therapeutics have transformed drug discovery by enabling modulation of challenging targets inaccessible to small molecules. However, most prot…
www.sciencedirect.com
December 18, 2025 at 11:29 AM
Interesting paper by the group of @sebastianpomplun.bsky.social of our @led3hub.bsky.social. Chemical stapling of recombinant proteins on the example of the Myc inhibitor Omomyc leads to enhanced serum stability, cellular uptake and intracellular activity.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
ReCHEMbinant stapling enhances intracellular delivery and bioactivity of engineered protein inhibitors
Protein therapeutics have transformed drug discovery by enabling modulation of challenging targets inaccessible to small molecules. However, most prot…
www.sciencedirect.com
December 18, 2025 at 11:26 AM
Reposted by Stephan Hacker
📢 Deadline Extended to January 15th, 2026!

Apply for our Meeting Award to get:

✅ 500 € grant for the #Biochemistry2026 conference
✅ 1 year of free Fachgruppe Biochemie membership

Apply now: en.gdch.de/network-stru...

Share with a #ECR who needs to see this!

#Chemistry #ChemBio #PhD @gdch.de
December 18, 2025 at 11:12 AM
Interesting paper by the group of Rolf Breinbauer in Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry. They synthesized three α-fluoromethyl naphthoquinone-based probes as potentially reduction-activated probes for oxidoreductases, but found promiscuous reactivity.

pubs.rsc.org/en/cont...
#ChemSky #ChemBio
Synthesis and evaluation of naphthoquinone-based probes for activity-based protein profiling of oxidoreductases
Activity-based protein profiling (ABPP) has become a highly valuable proteomic technique over the past decades especially in the investigation of hydrolytic enzymes. Oxidoreductases have so far received less attention as their catalytic function usually depends on cofactors, which requires different strategi
pubs.rsc.org
December 17, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Reposted by Stephan Hacker
📢 New Award for #ECRs in #Biochemistry!

Apply for our Meeting Award to get:
✅ 500 € grant for the #Biochemistry2026 conference
✅ 1 year of free division membership

Apply now: en.gdch.de/network-s...

Share with a #ECR who needs to see this! 👇
#Chemistry #ChemBio #AcademicTwitter #PhD
December 16, 2025 at 5:47 PM
It was great to be at the #iCNS meeting of the Institute for Chemical Neuroscience and see all the exciting research that is going on. I am happy to be part of this consortium and look forward to further exploring, how we can better understand psychiatric disorders using chemical tools.
i-cns.nl/en
Home | Institute for Chemical Neuroscience (iCNS)
The Institute for Chemical Neuroscience (iCNS) focuses on unraveling the molecular mechanisms of psychiatric symptoms. Neurobiologists, chemists, psychiatrists, data scientists and patient representat...
i-cns.nl
December 16, 2025 at 3:36 PM
In the last session of the #iCNS meeting, we learned about the research of Work Package 5 on "Target validation in advanced model systems". Great to see the many advanced biological systems that are available for experiments within this consortium.
i-cns.nl/en/research/...
December 16, 2025 at 3:32 PM
Great talk by Martijn Verdoes at the #iCNS meeting. He talked about the exciting research lines of his group incl. the work on using the ubiquitination machinery to make highly defined, site-specifically modified antibodies.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#ChemSky #ChemBio #antibodies #ubiquitin
December 16, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Reposted by Stephan Hacker
It is great to see, how highly represented LED3 researchers are at the #iCNS meeting of the Institute for Chemical Neuroscience. Exciting that our researchers are making so many important contributions to this innovative research direction. (1/4)
#ChemSky #ChemBio #Neuroscience #DrugDiscovery
December 16, 2025 at 3:27 PM