The goal of research in the Hadden lab is to utilize a medicinal chemistry/chemical biology approach to understand the mechanisms through which dysregulation of cellular signaling pathways contributes to the onset of human cancer and to apply this knowledge to develop improved therapeutics that target these pathways. To this end, we use a combination of computational, organic synthesis and molecular biology techniques to prepare and evaluate small molecule modulators of these therapeutic targets. Major ongoing projects include the following : (1) the development of small molecule inhibitors of the GLI family of transcription factors, (2) the optimization of small molecule inhibitors of translesion synthesis, and (3) the identification and development of small molecule regulators of RNA methylation.
