Engi Hassaan

Nationality:

    Egypt

Institution:

Philipps-University Marburg

Supervision:

Prof. Gerd Klebe (PUM)Gerhard Klebe, Dr. Wolfgang Jahnke (NOVA), Dr. Grzegorz Popowicz (HMGU)

Research Topic:

Implementing Fragment-based drug design to tackle neglected infectious targets

About the project:

Trypanosomiasis is a neglected disease caused by Trypanosoma parasites. An essential membrane-bound protein that is required for the biogenesis of glycosomes in these parasites is Pex14. The N terminal domain of Pex14 is required for binding the glyocosomal targeting receptor Pex5, and this protein-protein interaction is crucial for trypanosomal metabolism as it transfers glycolytic enzymes from the cytosol to the glycosome.  Specific inhibition of this Protein-Protein-Interface (PPI) has been established to be a promising route to target Trypanosomasis and this project focuses on developing new druggable inhibitors for this Protein-Protein Interface. A Fragment-based approach is implemented as fragments screening has proven to be an effective tool in finding novel hits to be starting points for subsequent lead development. Its success is derived from deploying low molecular weight compounds which enables fast screening of libraries relative to more complex ligands.

 

Personal information:

Engi Hassaan was born in Cairo, Egypt. She is a graduate of the German University in Cairo where she earned her bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy and Biotechnology in 2011. In 2014 she received her Masters in Science degree from the same university, with a thesis entitled ‘Mining ZINC Database to Discover Potential Phosphodiesterase 9 Inhibitors Using Structure Based Drug Design Approach’. Engi moved to Marburg, Germany where she is currently pursuing her PhD degree. Besides Germany, she has also lived in Hong Kong, USA, Syria, and Jordan.

 

Secondments:

Helmholtz Zentrum München (2 month), ETH Zürich (1 month)

 

List of publications:

Fragments as Novel Starting Points for tRNA-Guanine Transglycosylase Inhibitors Found by Alternative Screening Strategies. Hassaan E, Eriksson PO, Geschwindner S, Heine A, Klebe G.  ChemMedChem 2019. DOI:10.1002/cmdc.201900604

 

List of posters:

Do All Roads Really Lead to Rome? Learnings from Comparative Analysis of Fragment Binding using SPR, NMR, and X-Ray Crystallography. Hassan E. Softley C. Popowicz G, Eriksson PO, Heine A, Sattler M, Klebe G. New Frontiers in Structure-Based Drug Discovery, Sept. 23-25, 2019, Florence, Italy

The Power of Fragments: FBLD approach to investigate proteins structure. Magari F, Petrick J, Metz A, Wollenhaupt J, Huschmann F, Bertoletti N, Hassaan E, Glöckner S, Siefker C, Abazi N, Heine A, Weiss M, Jahnke W, Klebe G; New Frontiers in Structure-Based Drug Discovery, Sept. 23-25, 2019, Florence, Italy

Fourteenth Drug Discovery Chemistry Conference - FBDD April 9th/10th, 2019, San Diego, USA

DPhG Annual Meeting 2018, October 03/05 Hamburg, Germany

Tenth Joint BER II and BESSY II User Meeting, December 05/07, 2018, Berlin, Germany

18th Annual Drug Discovery Summit 2017, June 12/13, Berlin, Germany 

 

List of presentations:

Fourteenth Drug Discovery Chemistry Conference - FBDD April 9th/10th, 2019, San Diego, USA