Professor Wang current research is focussed on the discovery and development of novel protein kinase inhibitor drugs in various therapeutic areas particular cancer. The current ongoing research programmes include:
• Pre-clinic evaluation of mitotic kinase inhibitors for cancer therapy. A diverse library of drug-like inhibitors that effectively block the activity of mitotic kinases and induce cancer cell apoptosis has been developed. The drug candidate compounds possessing excellent pharmaceutical properties have been identified and are currently being evaluating for their in vivo anti-tumour efficacy and preclinical safety profiles. We will complete the candidate selection and pre-clinic evaluation in a short period of time. The effective drug candidate will be developed as a novel cell-cycle agent for cancer therapy.
• Discovery of Mnk pharmacologic inhibitors for targeted cancer therapy. Elevated expression level of eIF4E promotes cancer development and progression. Activity of eIF4E is modulated through phosphorylation by Mnk1 and Mnk2 and the phosphorylation event is necessary for oncogenic transformation. Importantly, recent findings suggest that Mnks are dispensable for normal development. For these reasons, pharmacologic inhibitors of Mnks may provide a nontoxic and effective anti-cancer therapeutic strategy. This project aims to identify novel and selective Mnk inhibitors for target validation and clinical application.
• Development of Pim1 inhibitors for treatment of hematopoietic malignancies. Pim1 is a proto-oncogene that has been implicated in early transformation and tumour progression, especially in hematopoietic malignancies and prostate carcinoma where it is a marker of a poor prognosis. Therefore Pim1 is emerging as an important target in drug discovery. However the current challenge is to obtain compounds that specifically inhibit only Pim1. This project provides a novel class of selective Pm1 inhibitors as potential therapeutic agents which are also used to investigate the different roles of other members of Pim kinase family in cells
