Dr. Trant and his team will use a multifaceted approach to explain the basic behaviours of disease-causing proteins, in an effort to advance the understanding of why Cotinga Pharmaceuticals cancer-fighting drug is proving successful in clinical trials.

Cotinga Pharmaceuticals developed a drug that targets and repairs specific proteins found in many cancers. To understand precisely how the drug and the proteins interact, as well as how the drug can repair their functions, the UWindsor team will use a combination of computer simulations and X-ray crystallography to capture “pictures” of the drugs’ actions-in-motion with the proteins.