Gerhard Wagner, PhD

Harvard Medical School

Academic Titles

Elkan Blout Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School

Research Program Affiliation

Member, Cancer Cell Biology

Research Abstract

The research in the Wagner laboratory is focused on protein structure, dynamics and stability, and on the relation of these to protein function. The primary research tool is Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. The research is focused on T-cell proteins (CD2, CD58, CD3, TCR, CD2BP2, Nck) and proteins involved in eukaryotic translation initiation (eIF4E, 4EBP, eIF4G, eIF4A, eIF1, eIF1A, eIF5, eIF5B). We also work on proteins important for transcriptional activation (transcriptional activator/coactivator interactions) and on apoptosis proteins from the Bcl-2 family and proteins located in the outer mitochondrial membrane. We are generally interested in identifying small-molecule inhibitors of protein-protein interactions and their potential use as anti-cancer agents. We also are developing a clinical metabolomics platform that jointly uses NMR and mass spectroscopy metabolite-based disease profiling and biomarker identification, targeting chronic myelogenous leukemia.