IBC2 Director Ivan Đikić has been awarded a prestigious LOEWE-Spitzenprofessur at Goethe University Frankfurt. The Hessian LOEWE research program provides around € 3 M over five years and will support Ivan’s drug development projects, focusing on proximity induction as  innovative mode-of-action. Throughout his career, Ivan dedicated his work to uncovering mechanisms that regulate cellular quality control. Early on, he pioneered the concept of ubiquitin as a versatile cellular signal. More recently, he focussed on reprogramming the body’s natural degradation pathways — such as the ubiquitin and autophagy systems — to target harmful proteins or organelles. This opens up new therapeutic options for a variety of diseases like cancer, neurodegenerative disorders and infections, including those that were previously considered untreatable.

As the Hessian minister for science, Timon Gremmels, pointed out, Ivan’s activities play a vital role not only in shaping the strategic profile of the Frankfurt region, but also in fostering interdisciplinary collaborations on novel treatment options for diseases such as cancer. University president Enrico Schleiff emphasized the essential importance of Ivan’s projects for combatting cancer and expressed his gratitude towards the federal state of Hessen, as the funding line of LOEWE-Spitzenprofessur helps to retain international top scientists like Ivan Đikić in Frankfurt.

Within the framework of the LOEWE-Spitzenprofessur, Ivan will now develop proximity-inducing drugs which enable the targeted degradation of tumor-related proteins in the cell. The planned projects will be complementing and expanding the already ongoing activities in the Đikić group within the framework of the BMBF-funded Cluster4Future PROXIDRUGS, which was initiated and is led by Đikić.