Protein phosphatases: Function, selectivity, and chemical modulation

Counteracting kinase activity, phosphatases are essential for cellular processes, yet still understudied. We employ as well as develop approaches to study phosphatases using interdisciplinary methods ranging from synthetic chemistry to molecular and cell biology. I will give an overview about our work, including studies on substrates and the chemical modulation of protein phosphatase-1 with an application in cardiomyopathy, contributions to understanding and inhibiting the cancer-promoting phosphatase PRL-3, and the elucidation of the activation of the oncogenic phosphatase SHP2 in the cell death receptor PD-1 pathway, which plays an important role in cancer immune evasion.