Friday, 24 June 11:00am – 12:00pm

This seminar will be delivered in Chemistry Lecture Theatre 4 and Online Zoom Please email chemistry.researchsupport@sydney.edu.au for zoom link and password.

Speaker: Ms Nisharnthi Duggan; The University of Sydney

Supervisor: Prof. Rich Payne

Title: Bioactive peptides for therapeutic applications in cardiovascular disease

Abstract: Cardiovascular diseases, including stroke, are the leading cause of death and disability worldwide. The underlying pathology for most of these conditions is abnormal blood clotting which is mediated by the coagulation cascade. Despite a wealth of clinically approved anticoagulants that target this pathway, there are currently no treatment options that provide the ideal safety and efficacy profile, with many imparting severe bleeding side effects. Furthermore, there are no approved therapeutics to treat the severe neuronal damage that occurs after stroke.

Peptides and proteins are becoming increasingly important as drug candidates due to their high potency and selectivity for biological targets. Nature is a rich source of bioactive peptides many of which have activity against human proteins. More recently, mRNA display technologies have emerged as powerful tools for identifying peptide drug leads. This seminar will describe efforts towards the development of novel peptide and protein drugs derived from arthropods or discovered by Random non-standard Peptide Integrated Discovery (RaPID) mRNA display technology that target proteins implicated in cardiovascular disease.