Benedikt Kessler is a Swiss researcher and academic. He is Professor of Biochemistry and Mass Spectrometry at the Target Discovery Institute, University of Oxford.[1]
Kessler's research has been focused on ubiquitin and protease biology. Some of his work has dealt with defining the molecular signatures in human disease processes and accelerating target discovery in translational research.[2][3] He holds two patents.[4][5]
In 2001, Kessler joined the Harvard Medical School as an Instructor in Pathology. He left Harvard in 2004 and moved to the United Kingdom, where he joined the University of Oxford as a Research Group Leader.[8] Later he started teaching at the University of Oxford, becoming a Full Professor of Biochemistry & Life Science Mass Spectrometry in 2014.[1]
Kessler was part of the DUB Alliance, a group that is working to develop novel drugs against deubiquitylating enzymes (DUBs). He is currently a member of the Innovative Technology Enabling Network (ITEN), a scientific consortium that explores DUBs as cancer targets coordinated by Pfizer.[9]
Research and work
Kessler has been studying major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I antigens using HPLC-based analysis since 1993 and mass spectrometry-based approaches to study the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway since 2000. In 2005, he established his own group at the University of Oxford, Nuffield Department of Medicine (NDM), with a focus on ubiquitin and protease biology, biological mass spectrometry and proteomics. Kessler relocated his laboratory to the Target Discovery Institute (TDI) in 2013.
Kessler has made contributions to explain the action of novel clinical drugs (Velcade, Carfilzomib, Kyprolis) for the treatment of Multiple Myeloma patients,[10] and to the discovery of potentially clinically exploitable cancer targets within the ubiquitin system, in particular deubiquitylating enzymes (DUBs).[11][12] The Kessler group also helped to uncover molecular signatures associated with a panel of human diseases via clinical proteomics studies.[13][14]
The Kessler Lab is currently developing chemoproteomics methods to profile active ubiquitin processing enzymes, in particular deubiquitylating enzymes (DUBs) and the dynamic ubiquitome.[15] Ubiquitin-based active site directed probes were developed that allowed the profiling of the active cellular content of the DUB enzyme family.[16] This approach was also used to demonstrate the involvement of otubain 1 (OTUB1) in infection[17] and prostate cancer,[18] the role of USP4[19] and USP47[20] in DNA repair mechanisms and USP18[21] in immuno-oncology.[22][23] In particular, Kessler's work contributed to the characterisation of small molecule DUB inhibitors as novel potential therapeutic agents against USP30[24][25] in Parkinson's disease, USP28[26] in squamous lung carcinoma and USP7[27] in multiple myeloma.[12][28]
Awards and honors
Cesar Roux Research Award of the Faculty of Medicine, Lausanne University
Human Frontier Science Program Organization long-term fellowship
Roche Research Foundation post-doctoral fellowship
Recipient of a Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF) Senior Research Award
Member of the British Society of Mass Spectrometry and British Society of Cell Biology
Member of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)
NIH study section member in 2003 and 2004: Bio-warfare and infectious diseases
Wellcome Trust VIP Award 2005
MRC New Investigator Award 2006-2009
Selected publications
Hemelaar, J., Galardy, P. J., Borodovsky, A., Kessler, B. M., Ploegh, H. L., & Ovaa, H. (2004). Chemistry-based functional proteomics: mechanism-based activity-profiling tools for ubiquitin and ubiquitin-like specific proteases.. Journal of proteome research, 3(2), 268-276.
Altun, M., Galardy, P. J., Shringarpure, R., Hideshima, T., LeBlanc, R., Anderson, K. C., . . . Kessler, B. M. (2005). Effects of PS-341 on the activity and composition of proteasomes in multiple myeloma cells.. Cancer research, 65(17), 7896-7901.
Edelmann, M. J., Kramer, H. B., Altun, M., & Kessler, B. M. (2010). Post-translational modification of the deubiquitinating enzyme otubain 1 modulates active RhoA levels and susceptibility to Yersinia invasion.. The FEBS journal, 277(11), 2515-2530.
Kramer, H. B., Simmons, A., Gasper-Smith, N., Borrow, P., Lavender, K. J., Qin, L., . . . Haynes, B. F. (2010). Elevation of intact and proteolytic fragments of acute phase proteins constitutes the earliest systemic antiviral response in HIV-1 infection.. PLoS Pathog, 6(5).
Parsons, J. L., Dianova, I. I., Khoronenkova, S. V., Edelmann, M. J., Kessler, B. M., & Dianov, G. L. (2011). USP47 is a deubiquitylating enzyme that regulates base excision repair by controlling steady-state levels of DNA polymerase β.. Molecular cell, 41(5), 609-615.
Altun, M., Kramer, H. B., Willems, L. I., McDermott, J. L., Leach, C. A., Goldenberg, S. J., . . . Kogan, E. (2011). Activity-based chemical proteomics accelerates inhibitor development for deubiquitylating enzymes.. Chemistry & biology, 18(11), 1401-1412.
Chauhan, D., Tian, Z., Nicholson, B., Kumar, K. G. S., Zhou, B., Carrasco, R., . . . Kodrasov, M. P. (2012). A small molecule inhibitor of ubiquitin-specific protease-7 induces apoptosis in multiple myeloma cells and overcomes bortezomib resistance.. Cancer cell, 22(3), 345-358.
Konietnzy, R., Wijnhoven, P., Blackford, A. N., Kessler, B., Travers, J., Nishi, R., & Jackson, S. P. (2015). USP4 auto-deubiquitylation promotes homologous recombination. Molecular Cell, 60(3), 362-373.
Iglesias-Gato, D., Chuan, Y. -C., Jiang, N., Svensson, C., Bao, J., Shang, Z., . . . Flores-Morales, A. (2015). Erratum: OTUB1 de-ubiquitinating enzyme promotes prostate cancer cell invasion in vitro and tumorigenesis in vivo.. Molecular cancer, 14, 88.
Huang, H., van Dullemen, L., Akhtar, M., Lo Faro, M. L., Yu, Z., Valli, A., . . . Kessler, B. (2018). Proteo-metabolomics reveals compensation between ischemic and non-injured contralateral kidneys after reperfusion. Scientific Reports, 8.
Salah, E., Zhang, P., Charles, P., Mathea, S., Damianou, A., Fischer, R., . . . Scott, H. (2019). Comprehensive Landscape of Active Deubiquitinating Enzymes Profiled by Advanced Chemoproteomics. Frontiers in Chemistry, 7.
^Kessler, Benedikt M.; Glas, Rickard; Ploegh, Hidde L. (2002). "MHC class I antigen processing regulated by cytosolic proteolysis—short cuts that alter peptide generation". Molecular Immunology. 39 (3–4): 171–179. doi:10.1016/S0161-5890(02)00100-1. PMID12200049.