Luke Erber

The Erber laboratory is focused on:

• Developing chemical tools to expand the repertoire of chemical probes to characterize and modulate native protein-protein interactions
• Characterizing and modulating DNA-protein interactions by small molecules

The temporally specific and tissue specific expression of genotypes to phenotypes is a tightly regulated at the chromatin by epigenetic activity. Epigenetic reader proteins are central regulators of the transmission of genetic information. Yet the regulation of epigenetic reader protein activity through protein-protein interactions, post-translational modifications and changes in chromatin structure through DNA damage are not completely understood. The Erber research program will interrogate biochemical mechanisms that control the functional activity of epigenetic reader domains in cancer-relevant disease models using biochemical approaches. This is accomplished by using chemical tools to 1) expand the repertoire of chemical probes to study native protein interactions, 2) define chromatin remodeling and repair mechanisms in response to DNA damage. Chemical biology and quantitative mass spectrometry approaches will be applied to generate functional predictions about chromatin and epigenetic regulation and validated using biochemistry and cell-based experiments. Characterization of cellular molecular interactions will serve to improve our fundamental understanding macromolecular recognition events, cancer development and serve as the basis for generating synthetic chemical probes, to modulate epigenetic activity driving development and progression of disease.