ArticleScience advances2020
PHOTACs enable optical control of protein degradation.
Article in Science advances, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 129 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
129 citing papers in PubMed, 283 citations in OpenAlex.
- Context matters in PROTAC design: navigating the trade-off between degradation and developability.Journal of enzyme inhibition and medicinal chemistry · 2026Review
- Post-translational modification-regulating biomaterials for regeneration.Bioactive materials · 2026Review
- Harnessing the ubiquitin-proteasome system: advances and challenges of PROTACs in breast cancer.Molecular biology reports · 2026Review
- PROTACs in personalized and precision medicine: transforming targeted therapy with advances in selectivity and patient stratification.Cancer chemotherapy and pharmacology · 2026Review
- Advancing PROTAC therapeutics through chemistry-guided design of smart delivery systems.Acta pharmacologica Sinica · 2026Review
- Generalizable Strategies for the Synthesis of Cereblon-Recruiting PROTAC Prodrugs.Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) · 2026Article
- Bridging BET bromodomain and immune checkpoint inhibitors through generative bioorganic frameworks for next-generation cancer immunotherapy.RSC medicinal chemistry · 2026Review
- Optimizing CRBN-ligands for optical targeted protein degradation.RSC medicinal chemistry · 2026Article
- Precision-Engineered PROTACs: Integrating Physical and Chemical Strategies for Targeted Cancer Therapy.Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) · 2026Review
- PROTAC-mediated regulation of programmed cell death: From molecular mechanisms to therapeutic breakthroughs.Innovation (Cambridge (Mass.)) · 2026Review
- Light-controlled disruption of cancer cell dormancy via photoswitchable stress hormone receptor degraders.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Multistate photoswitches beyond on and off.Nature communications · 2026Review
- Mechanisms and Design Principles of Proteolysis-Targeting Chimeras and Their Emerging Applications.ACS pharmacology & translational science · 2026Review
- Recent Advances of Azobenzene-Based Photoresponsive Molecular Switches for Protein-Targeted Photopharmacology.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- PROTAC-based protein degradation: a window of opportunity for melanoma therapy.Journal of biomedical science · 2026Review
- Targeted Protein Degradation in Cancer: PROTACs, New Targets, and Clinical Mechanisms.Biomolecules · 2026Review
- RuPHOTACs Provide Photocontrol Over Protein Degradation with Optimized Properties for Biological Applications.Research square · 2026Article
- Advances in controllable targeted protein degradation: emerging strategies and mechanisms.Science China. Life sciences · 2026Review
- Proteolysis-targeting chimera (PROTAC) nanomedicines toward cancer treatment: From synthesis to therapeutic delivery.Biomaterials · 2026Review
- Photocontrolled trimethoprim PROTACs targeting the eDHFR protein tag.Nature communications · 2025Article
69 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
PROTACs (PROteolysis TArgeting Chimeras) are bifunctional molecules that target proteins for ubiquitylation by an E3 ligase complex and subsequent degradation by the proteasome. They have emerged as powerful tools to control the levels of specific cellular proteins. We now introduce photoswitchable PROTACs that can be activated with the spatiotemporal precision that light provides. These trifunctional molecules, which we named PHOTACs (PHOtochemically TArgeting Chimeras), consist of a ligand for an E3 ligase, a photoswitch, and a ligand for a protein of interest. We demonstrate this concept by using PHOTACs that target either BET family proteins (BRD2,3,4) or FKBP12. Our lead compounds display little or no activity in the dark but can be reversibly activated with different wavelengths of light. Our modular approach provides a method for the optical control of protein levels with photopharmacology and could lead to new types of precision therapeutics that avoid undesired systemic toxicity.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.