This year, two PROXIDRUGS project leaders, Ivan Đikić and Gerhard Hummer, have been named as Highly Cited Researchers, recognizing their outstanding influence in the life sciences. Ivan Đikić has been awarded for the eighth consecutive year, his research papers have ranked among the most cited from 2014 to 2024 in the two categories “Biology and Biochemistry” and “Molecular Biology and Genetics”, as recorded by Web of Science. Gerhard Hummer has been honored for the third yea

From 3–7 November, a series of events took place as part of the Friedrich Merz Visiting Professorship, which in 2025 was awarded to Prof. Raymond Deshaies. Enabled by the Merz Foundation and organized by the curatorial team and PROXIDRUGS project leads Maike Windbergs and Stefan Knapp, the programme offered numerous opportunities for scientific exchange and inspiration. Across several dedicated formats, students, researchers, and members of the public were invited to engage

As part of the “BMFTR Initiates – Research with North America” program, the ProxiUS project was approved to start on November 1, 2025. The project is part of the Cluster4Future PROXIDRUGS and based at Goethe University Frankfurt. Over the next two years, it will enable the cluster to establish scientific exchange and outreach programs with North America and to strengthen transatlantic collaboration in a sustainable way. The goal is to build collaborations with researchers at

A new chapter in the book series Annual Reports in Medicinal Chemistry (Academic Press, 2025) was published by scientist from PROXIDRUGS partner Fraunhofer ITMP. It offers a comprehensive overview of AI-driven methods in the design and application of proximity-inducing therapeutics (proxidrugs). After introducing targeted protein degradation, the chapter examines the key challenges in proxidrug design and the role of computational methods. It also provides a broader perspect

In their recent review (published in Trends in Pharmacological Sciences) Gina Gotthardt, PROXIDRUGS researcher Jan Keiten-Schmitz, and PROXIDRUG PI Stefan Müller discuss how SUMO-signaling and SUMO-targeted ubiquitin ligases (StUbLs) can be exploited to inactivate disease-associated proteins. The review explores the new therapeutic possibilities that this opens within the field of drug discovery utilizing the ubiquitin-proteasome system. Established cancer treatments are harn