Mapping the latent CRBN-molecular glue degrader interactome
Molecular glue degraders (MGDs) are a transformative modality in drug discovery. MGDs that work in concert with the E3 ligase CRL4 CRBN can degrade a range of substrates through tailored MGDs. To explore CRL4 CRBN reprogrammability, we tested whether reported CRBN-MGD substrates are part of a network of latent CRBN interactors, detectable with generic CRBN-MGDs. Leveraging highly parallel interaction measurement (GluePCA) between CRL4 CRBN and human zinc-fingers (ZFs), we identified ∼210 ZFs bound to CRBN-pomalidomide, where top binders are already reported as degraded by dedicated MGDs. To map latent CRBN-MGDs interactions proteome-wide, and thus define the immediately accessible CRBN target space, we combined AI-derived protein surface queries (MaSIF-mimicry) with GluePCA. This pipeline identified 6 known and 43 novel CRBN-pomalidomide binders, thereby providing privileged starting points for MGD development. We expect this binding-focused, highly parallel workflow to be readily applicable to other MGD/E3 ligase systems, extending the target landscape of this emerging drug class.
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Galli, P., Xiao, S., Meng, Y., Hanzl, A., Bendel, A. M., Aguirre, J. D., Díaz-Rovira, A. M., Stammnitz, M. R., Kempf, G., Kater, L., Shimada, K., Wei, Y., Scheck, A., Klein, D., Cavadini, S., Diss, G., Correia, B. E., & Thomä, N. H. (2025). Mapping the latent CRBN-molecular glue degrader interactome [Preprint]. openRxiv. https://doi.org/10.64898/2025.12.02.691773
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École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Friedrich Miescher Institute
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Friedrich Miescher Institute
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Centre for Genomic Regulation
Friedrich Miescher Institute
Friedrich Miescher Institute
2025-12-02
openRxiv
EPFL