Daniel K. Nomura is an American chemical biologist and Professor of Chemical Biology and Molecular Therapeutics at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, in the Departments of Chemistry and Molecular & Cell Biology. His work employs chemoproteomic approaches to develop small molecule therapeutics and therapeutic modalities against traditionally "undruggable" proteins. He is a member of the scientific advisory committee of the Mark Foundation for Cancer Research, a foundation set up by billionaire

Alexander Knaster Alexander Knaster (born 19 February 1959) is an American billionaire businessman who is the founder of Pamplona Capital Management. He is documented to giving large donations to the Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party in The United Kingd ...

which funds early-stage cancer research. He is also an Investment Advisory Partner for , an Investment Advisor for Droia Ventures, and an with The Column Group. Nomura is also the Co-Director of the Molecular Therapeutics Initiative with Professor Roberto Zoncu at UC Berkeley.

Research and education

Nomura received his BA in Molecular and Cell Biology in 2003 and PhD in Molecular Toxicology in 2008 from

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...

, studying under the mentorship of John Casida. He went on to perform his postdoctoral research with Ben Cravatt at

Scripps Research Scripps Research is a nonprofit American medical research facility that focuses on research and education in the biomedical sciences. Headquartered in San Diego, California, the institute has over 170 laboratories employing 2,100 scientists, tec ...

in La Jolla, California. There he discovered a role for monoacylglycerol lipase in generating oncogenic signaling lipids that promote cancer and in proinflammatory cascades that impact neurodegenerative disorders. In 2011, Nomura started his independent research group at

. His work focuses on implementing chemoproteomic platforms to develop small molecule therapeutics against traditionally "undruggable" proteins. These approaches have led to the discovery of novel inhibitors and new ligands that expand the scope of proteolysis targeting chimeras ( PROTACS), which are bifunctional molecules that harness the cells

ubiquitin-proteasome system Proteasomes are essential protein complexes responsible for the degradation of proteins by proteolysis, a chemical reaction that breaks peptide bonds. Enzymes that help such reactions are called proteases. Proteasomes are found inside all e ...

to degrade targets of interest. Notable recent discoveries include an inhibitor of

mTORC1 mTORC1, also known as mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 or mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1, is a protein complex that functions as a nutrient/energy/redox sensor and controls protein synthesis. mTOR Complex 1 (mTORC1) is comp ...

, a molecular glue between UBR7 and

p53 p53, also known as tumor protein p53, cellular tumor antigen p53 (UniProt name), or transformation-related protein 53 (TRP53) is a regulatory transcription factor protein that is often mutated in human cancers. The p53 proteins (originally thou ...

that activates p53 tumor suppressor activity, a covalent inhibitor against MYC, novel covalent recruiters against E3 ubiquitin ligases such as RNF114, RNF4, and FEM1B for targeted protein degradation applications, the Deubiquitinase Targeting Chimera (DUBTAC) platform for targeted protein stabilization, and a chemical rational design strategy for developing molecular glue degraders. In 2017, Nomura became the Director of the Novartis-Berkeley Translational Chemical Biology Institute, which aims to develop chemical technologies and therapeutics against undruggable targets. Nomura is also co-founder o
Frontier MedicinesVicinitas Therapeutics
and Zenith Therapeutics. In February 2025, Nomura also became the Editor-in-Chief for Molecular Cancer Therapeutics.

Awards

* 2019 Mark Foundation for Cancer Research ASPIRE award * 2022 National Cancer Institute Outstanding Investigator Award

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nomura, Daniel 1953 births Living people