About Us
Overview
Our mission is rooted in the belief that science has boundless potential in solving the challenges of human disease.
The Spiegel Research Group is dedicated to the development of new methods and molecules that facilitate the understanding and treatment of human disease. We address therapeutic challenges through research initiatives focused on optimizing chemistry to identify new “druggable” targets for treating disease. Our laboratory is a proven testing ground for novel hypotheses that lead to the answers drug developers need to advance innovative discoveries into the clinic and to market to help patients in need.
Conducting Research With Impact
Our researchers have broken new ground in translating fundamental science into new therapeutic strategies for a broad range of historically difficult-to-treat diseases. Our work has uncovered new pathways to treat disease and served as the forerunner of novel drug development approaches:
The Spiegel Research Group was the first to discover a strategy for extracellular protein degradation called Molecular Degraders of Extracellular Proteins (MoDEs), aimed at selectively removing extracellular proteins that are implicated in a broad range of diseases. The discovery formed the basis for a proprietary drug discovery platform, which was later licensed to and eventually acquired by Biohaven, a pharmaceutical company based in New Haven, CT, where Dr. Spiegel serves as a scientific advisor.
We pioneered the development of antibody-recruiting molecules (ARMs), which are bifunctional small molecules that recruit antibodies already present in the human body to disease-causing cells or virus particles.
The Spiegel Research Group is also renowned for its work in the areas of longevity and diabetes, having been the first to synthesize several key advanced glycation end products (AGEs) including methylglyoxal-derived hydroimidazolones, glucosepane and pentosinane. These synthetic materials have enabled widespread investigations into the biological roles of AGEs.