Ed McIntee

Research Interests

Drug development – Phosphatases are enzymes that are involved in the cell signal transduction process. When information is not properly conveyed in the cell, problems in the generation of signals necessary for different cellular events such as growth, migration, metabolism, gene transcription, cell-cell communication, immune response and apoptosis/survival decisions occur. When these events are not controlled, cancer and other disease states such as diabetes occur. We are interested in developing isozyme specific inhibitors of low molecular weight protein tyrosine phosphatase (LMW PTP).  The enzyme LMW PTP helps stabilize cell-cell contacts and is a contributor in cancerous cells attacking adjacent tissues.  Inhibitors of LMW PTP, hence, may possess potential anti-cancer properties. The goal of our group is to design new inhibitors for LMW PTP using in silico molecular modeling methods, synthesize these molecules and then test them in a biological assay. 

Biomarker synthesis and identification – Identification of cancer early is one of our best defenses against it.  Exposure to environmental carcinogens, such as tobacco smoke, can result in adduct formation (covalent bonding) with DNA molecules.  If these adducts are allowed to persist in the body, they can lead to miscoding and mutation of DNA and eventually the mutation of the proteins that are produced.  If enough mutations occur this can result in cancer.  Our group looks at adducts that result from exposure to tobacco specific nitrosamines (TSN).  One of our goals is to synthesize proposed DNA-TSN adducts that can be used in an adductomics project started at the University of Minnesota.  The goal of this project is to help develop screening methods to detect cancer early.