Bria O'Gorman

Thesis title: Investigating the Therapeutic Efficacy of a First-in-Class MDM2 Dimerisation Inhibitor Against MDM2-MDMX Driven Neuroblastoma

Biography

Background

I am a second year PhD student on the iCASE MRC Precision Medicine Doctoral Training Programme, with industry partner; Disruptyx Therapeutics.  My project centres around developing efficacy for a novel cell penetrating peptide disruptor in the treatment of high-risk Neuroblastoma.

Qualifications

BSc (Hons) Human Biology (2023)

Research summary

Paediatric cancer, innovative drug development, intracellular peptide interactions, MDM2, MDMX, p53

Past research interests

Phosphodiesterase activity in Heart Failure

Project activity

Cell penetrating peptide interaction disruptors are a novel class of pharmaceuticals. My project is aiming to develop efficacy for an MDM2/X dimerisation inhibitor, with the hope that this can be used to treat mutated, otherwise known as "high risk", cases of Neuroblastoma.

Currently, industry standard chemotherapeutics are unable to target mutated neuroblastoma cells, as their mechanism relies on active p53. However, in TP53 mutated cases, p53 is no longer active. Therefore, I aim to elucidate the effectivity of inhibiting MDM2/X dimerisation, through a novel disruptor peptide, in inducing p53 independent apoptotic activity.

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