Rami Hannoush
Senior Principal Scientist, Early Discovery Biochemistry
"My passion is to investigate and solve key problems in biomedical science with the hope that it translates our discoveries into ground-breaking therapeutics that can have an impact on patients’ lives."
I joined the Early Discovery Biochemistry department at Genentech in 2006 after completing my postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard and my PhD degree at McGill University.
My current role includes leading interdisciplinary teams in lead discovery and research biology, with the overarching goal of developing therapeutics for the treatment of diseases with unmet medical need. I have a deep and broad interest in science and translational research, and Genentech offers me a unique opportunity to conduct ground-breaking science and at the same time translate our discoveries into the clinic.
Post Doctoral Mentor
The postdoc program at Genentech is a glorious enterprise for fostering creativity, bringing in trainees early in their careers to grow and develop into the next-generation scientists. The postdoc program is strategically positioned within the Genentech ecosystem, with access to terrific resource infrastructure and a wide range of scientific expertise. I really enjoy the opportunity to work together and mentor a postdoctoral trainee to learn to think independently and critically, and to come up with innovative approaches to solve scientific problems. Projects in my lab are aimed at understanding and investigating biological mechanisms in basic biomedical science that can have a profound impact on drug discovery and development. The lab has made important contributions in the fields of Wnt signaling, protein lipidation and targeting protein functions in cancer and neurodegenerative disease.
Featured Publication
Unsaturated fatty acyl recognition by Frizzled receptors mediates dimerization upon Wnt ligand binding.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017, 114, 4147-4152.
Nile AH, Mukund S, Stanger K, Wang W, Hannoush RN.
Our research is focused on developing pharmacological strategies for targeting proteins and protein – protein interactions that are important in disease, with the aim of developing novel therapeutics and at the same time advancing our understanding of cellular molecular mechanisms. Specific lab interests include Wnt signaling, protein lipidation, developing novel peptide technologies for drug discovery and lead identification, probe development and molecular imaging to study protein behavior in cells. Throughout our work, we utilize a combination of phage display, biochemistry, chemical and cell biology approaches.
Recently, we have been involved with a number of early stage initiatives such as developing novel scaffolds for targeting proteins, studying the mechanisms of cellular internalization of peptides, identifying ligands against novel drug targets in different therapeutic areas and using peptides as proof-of-concept tools to study stem cell signaling pathways and to understand how to target tumors.
- Harvard University, Postdoctoral Fellowship, Cell Biology and Chemical Biology – 2006
- McGill University, Ph.D – 2003
- American University of Beirut, B.S. – 1997
- Chair, FASEB Science Research Conference on Protein Lipidation: Enzymology, Signaling & Therapeutics – 2017
- G. Ronald Brown Lecture Award, McGill University – 2016
- American Chemical Society Young Investigator – 2013
- Co-Chair, Gordon Research Conference on Bioorganic Chemistry – 2011
- Class Marshal, Harvard University – 2006
- Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Fellowship – 2005
- Outstanding Poster Award, Harvard Cell Biology Retreat – 2005
- Boehringer Ingelheim Award in Bioorganic Chemistry – 2005
- Ambridge Award, McGill University – 2003
- Winkler Best Thesis Award, McGill University – 2003
- NSERC Canada Postgraduate and Postdoctoral Fellowships – 2001, 2003