ERC Proof of Concept winner: Professor Elmar Wolf

Professor Elmar Wolf of Kiel University (Germany), was awarded the ERC Proof of Concept grant, to develop DEGRON, a first-of-its-kind drug discovery platform. We are proud to have supported Prof. Wolf’s successful submission to the March 2025 call with review support. Learn more about the project below.

Professor Elmar Wolf. (Foto: Gunnar Bartsch) (Image: Universität Würzburg)

 “The ERC project DEGRON enables my team to offer our targeted protein degradation assays as a service to a broad range of users. Many thanks to Catalyze for their support during the application process.”

– Professor Elmar Wolf, Kiel University

DEGRON aims to unlock the full potential of PROTACS

Building on the discoveries of Prof. Wolf’s ERC Consolidator Grant and ERC Starting Grant, DEGRON aims to unlock the full potential of PROTACS (Proteolysis-Targeting Chimeras). The development of PROTACs already revolutionized drug discovery by offering a powerful alternative to traditional small-molecule inhibitors, which are not effective in many diseases, including cancer, neurodegenerative disorders and autoimmune conditions.

PROTACS act – via E3 ubiquitin ligases – to induce the complete degradation of disease-causing proteins, rather than only inhibiting them. However, there are a number of bottlenecks that have prevented the full potential of PROTACs from being unleashed.

Groundwork for a future integrated drug discovery platform.

In this ERC Proof of Concept project, Professor Wolf aims to develop a prototype of DEGRON, a first-of-its-kind platform that provides a systematic, high-throughput, and scalable solutions for PROTAC development. By combining in vivo target validation models, rational E3 ligase selection and real-time in vivo validation, DEGRON eliminates trial-and-error inefficiencies, accelerates drug development, and expands the therapeutic potential of PROTACs.

In the project, Professor Wolf will demonstrate its feasibility in enabling rational E3 ligase selection and real-time preclinical validation, laying the groundwork for a future integrated drug discovery platform.