Faculty Profile
Thomas Hanigan
Assistant Professor of Medicinal Chemistry
Department of Pharmacological and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Office:
University of Houston College of Pharmacy
Health 2, Room 7048
4349 Martin Luther King Boulevard
Houston, TX 77204-5037
Contact: thanigan@central.uh.edu
Research:
In addition to gain- and loss-of-function somatic mutations in oncogenes and tumor suppressors, copy number alterations (CNAs) that significantly affect the expression of these proteins play a pivotal role in tumorigenesis. While oncogenes and tumor suppressors are often challenging to target with small molecules, CNAs collaterally impact the expression of thousands of metabolic enzymes, which present promising opportunities for therapeutic intervention. The Hanigan lab focuses on investigating a specific subset of these enzymes, particularly those associated with the recessive metabolic disorders known as inborn errors of metabolism (IEM), with the goal of developing selective therapeutics for cancer and IEM. To accomplish these goals, we use an interdisciplinary approach combining synthetic organic chemistry, chemical biology and systems pharmacology.
- Postdoctoral Associate, The Scripps Research Institute 2018-2023
- Research Assistant, The University of Iowa, 2018
- Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry, The University of Illinois, 2012-2017
- B.S. in Chemistry/Materials Engineering, Iowa State University 2007-2012
PubMed
ORCID
ResearchGate
- Thomas W. Hanigan, Junichiro Takaya, Haoxin Li, Jarret R. Remsberg, Verena Albert, J.C. Ducom, Christopher M. Joslyn, Scott C Henderson, Kathryn S Spencer, Sabrina Barbas, Melissa A Dix, Kim Masuda, Enrique Saez, Kenji Sasaki, Christopher G. Parker, Benjamin F. Cravatt. Small Molecule Inhibitors of Complex IV Induce Imbalanced Pyrimidine Expansion in OXA1L Variant Cells. In-Preparation (2023).
- Remsberg, J.R., Suciu, R.M., Zambetti, N.A., Thomas W. Hanigan, et al. ABHD17 regulation of plasma membrane palmitoylation and N-Ras-dependent cancer growth. Nat Chem Biol 17, (8):856-864. (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41589-021-00785-8
- Michael R. Lazear, Jarrett R. Remsberg, Martin G. Jaeger, Katherine Rothamel, Hsuan-lin Her, Kristen E. DeMeester, Evert Njomen, Simon J. Hogg, Jahan Rahman, Landon R. Whitby, Sang Joon Won, Michael A. Schafroth, Daisuke Ogasawara, Minoru Yokoyama, Garrett L. Lindsey, Haoxin Li, Jason Germain, Sabrina Barbas, Joan Vaughan, Thomas W. Hanigan, Vincent F. Vartabedian, Christopher J. Reinhardt, Melissa M. Dix, Seong Joo Koo, Inha Heo, John R. Teijaro, Gabriel M. Simon, Brahma Ghosh, Omar Abdel-Wahab, Kay Ahn, Alan Saghatelian, Bruno Melillo, Stuart L. Schreiber, Gene W. Yeo, Benjamin F. Cravatt. Proteomic discovery of chemical probes that perturb protein complexes in human cells. Bioarxiv. 2022. https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.12.12.520090
- Taha TY, Aboukhatwa SM, Knopp RC, Ikegaki N, Abdelkarim H, Neerasa J, Lu Y, Neelarapu R, Thomas W. Hanigan, Thatcher GRJ, Petukhov PA. Design, Synthesis, and Biological Evaluation of Tetrahydroisoquinoline-Based Histone Deacetylase 8 Selective Inhibitors. ACS Med Chem Lett. 2017 Aug 1;8(8):824-829. doi: 10.1021/acsmedchemlett.7b00126.
- Thomas W. Hanigan, Jonna Frasor, Pavel Petukhov. Divergent JNK Phosphorylation of HDAC3 in Breast Cancer Cells Determines HDAC Inhibitor Binding and Selectivity. Cell Chemical Biology. 2017 Nov 16;24(11):1356-1367.e8. doi:10.1016/j.chembiol.2017.08.015.
- Thomas W. Hanigan, Taha Y. Taha, Pavel Petukhov. "Potent Hydroxamic Acid HDAC Inhibitors Re-equilibrate the Subcellular Localization and Post-Translational Modification State of Class I HDACs" PLOS ONE 12(10): e0186620. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0186620
- Thomas W Hanigan, Jeanne Danes, Taha Taha, Jonna Frasor, Pavel Petukhov. "Histone Deacetylase Inhibitor-Based Chromatin Precipitation for Identification of Targeted Genomic Loci". J Biol Methods. 2018;5(1):e88. doi: 10.14440/jbm.2018.216.
- Thomas W. Hanigan, Aboukhatwa SM, Taha TY, Neerasa J, Ranjan R, El-Bastawissy EE, Elkersh MA, El-Moselhy TF, Frasor J, Mahmud N, McLachlan A, Petukhov PA. Structurally Diverse Histone Deacetylase Photoreactive Probes: Design, Synthesis, and Photolabeling Studies in Live Cells and Tissue. ChemMedChem. 2019 Jun 5;14(11):1096-1107. doi: 10.1002/cmdc.201900114.
Awards & Honors
- PIIPS Fellow: American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, Charles Wesley Petranek Memorial Scholar, W.E. van Doren Scholar
Patent Applications
- Hanigan TW, Frasor J, Petukhov P. (2017). Superior anti-cancer combination of HDAC and JNK/p38 pathway kinase inhibitors as treatment for triple-negative breast cancer. Provisional Application for Patent. Application Number 62/457,244
- Hanigan TW, Frasor J, Petukhov P. (2017). Convergent synthetic strategy to synthesis of photoreactive probes and their histone deacetylase target engagement evaluation in live cells. Provisional Application for Patent. Application Number 62/457,251
- Hanigan TW, Frasor J, Petukhov P. (2017). HDAC3 Phosphorylation as a Diagnostic Marker for HDAC Inhibitor Efficacy. Provisional Application for Patent. Application Number 62/457,254
Achievement and Involvement
- Guest Editorial Board, ASAPbio, Manuscript reviewer for Life Science Alliance, Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry, PLOS ONE, Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry