Pano Theodoropoulos

Chemical biology, cancer research, MD/PhD oncology fellow at UT Southwestern

[Lasker Foundation @LaskerFDN]

Congratulations to this year’s #LaskerAward winners!
Basic: Dirk Görlich & Steven L. McKnight
Clinical: Michael J. Welsh, Jesús (Tito) González, & Paul A. Negulescu
Special Achievement: Lucy Shapiro
https://t.co/JASQbYI0vK
#Lasker2025 #LaskerLaureate

[Lasker Foundation @LaskerFDN]

Congratulations to Dirk Görlich and Steven L. McKnight, 2025 #LaskerAward winners! - “for discoveries that exposed the structures and functions of low-complexity domains within protein sequences”
#Lasker2025 #LaskerLaureate #structuralbiology #phaseseparation

[Pano Theodoropoulos @PanoTheod]

@NiuSanford An additional strategy might be to outsource some of the grant process to private foundations. E.g. match grant funding awarded by foundations such as HHMI etc. The limitation there is to cover all the topics in the NIH research portfolio but could be used for a subset.

[Pano Theodoropoulos @PanoTheod]

Out now in @nature another study on the thiophenyl nicotinamide aka Compound 21 aka Gliocidin which, in a parallel effort, confirms the mechanism of action we published in 6/2024. Importantly, this new study demonstrates efficacy in GBM mouse models. It could be interesting to see if our more potent analogue, compound 9, enhances efficacy. Congratulations to the authors!

https://t.co/nB99E2KZYm

https://t.co/9HYErvi5bO

[Yu-Jung Chen @yujungche]

I’m excited to share our latest study in @nature on this novel compound called Gliocidin, that targets glioblastoma (#GBM), the most malignant brain tumor. #drugdiscovery #cancer #cancermetabolism
@GSKGradSchool @MSKCancerCenter

https://t.co/MbViHc7INS

[Lasker Foundation @LaskerFDN]

Congratulations to Zhijian “James” Chen, 2024 #LaskerAward winner! – “for the discovery of the cGAS enzyme that senses foreign and self DNA, solving the mystery of how DNA stimulates immune and inflammatory responses.” https://t.co/hGFSdFMq7E #Lasker2024 #LaskerLaureate

[UTSW Radiation Oncology @UTSW_RadOnc]

(1/2) Welcome to Deepak Nijhawan, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor, who joins our department as Vice Chair of Research and Chief of our Section of Molecular Medicine!

[Lasker Foundation @LaskerFDN]

Alfred G. Gilman was born #OTD in 1941. He won a #LaskerAward in 1989 for the discovery that #Gproteins carry signals that regulate vital processes within cells. @UTSWMedCenter https://t.co/6HCCUvuWm9

[Pano Theodoropoulos @PanoTheod]

Really sad/unfortunate that this article led to so much unproductive work… However amyloid is probably still one (possibly of many) causes of the disease. There are patients with mutations in the pathway that get the disease early and there are approved drugs that act on beta amyloid which do produce some clinical benefit.

[Pano Theodoropoulos @PanoTheod]

@UTSWMedCenter @UTSWmstp @AmerChemSociety @utswcancer @UTSWInternalMed @CRI_UTSW @UTSWHemeOnc Big thanks to Deepak Nijhawan, members of the Nijhawan and De Brabander lab, my co-first author @_hollyguo and the UTSW Hem/Onc fellowship!

[Pano Theodoropoulos @PanoTheod]

Our newest article is now published online. This solved the mystery of the mechanism of action of a neuronal cancer toxin, “compound 21,” paving the way for future clinical development. Summary 🧵 below 👇

https://t.co/5RJHEIATYQ

[Pano Theodoropoulos @PanoTheod]

@UTSWMedCenter @UTSWmstp @AmerChemSociety @utswcancer @UTSWInternalMed @CRI_UTSW @UTSWHemeOnc

[Pano Theodoropoulos @PanoTheod]

@AruS_kinase @SamuelBHume Those seem like reasonable hypotheses and very testable. Alternatively, there might be a difference in the cellular response or detection of shortening telomeres in those cells, which could be interesting.

[Pano Theodoropoulos @PanoTheod]

Reflecting on our recent publication, what a satisfying scientific moment this was. Making a crazy hypothesis about how a molecule kills cells simply based on its chemical structure - and it was very much right. The dose dependent rescue of Compound 21 by nicotinamide (Nam):

[Pano Theodoropoulos @PanoTheod]

@NewsfromScience Very interesting puzzle. Non-essential in cancer cells based on depmap data at least, arguing against some fundamental cellular housekeeping function.