Kurt Brunden, PhD
Research Associate Professor
Scientific Director, Marian S. Ware Alzheimer and Benaroya Parkinson's Disease Drug Discovery Programs
Mailing Address:
| University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine |
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| 3600 Spruce Street, 640B Maloney Building / 4283 |
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| Office:
215-615-5262 |
Lab: 215-662-3292 |
Fax: 215-349-5909 |
| Email: kbrunden@upenn.edu |
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As Director of CNDR Drug Discovery, Dr. Brunden oversees a research team that is responsible for translating basic research discoveries made within CNDR into programs that will ultimately lead to new therapeutic treatments for neurodegenerative disease. This encompasses a variety of research activities, including further validation of putative drug targets, development of high-throughput assays to allow evaluation of small molecule compounds to such drug targets, in vitro and in vivo pharmacological characterization of active compounds identified during compound screening, and medicinal chemistry refinement of prototype lead compounds to improve drug efficacy, pharmacokinetics, and safety.
Select Publications
Ballatore C, Soper JH, Piscitelli F, James M, Huang L, Atasoylu O, Huryn DM, Trojanowski JQ, Lee VM-Y, Brunden KR and Smith AB III (2011) Cyclopentane-1-3-dione: a novel isostere for the carboxylic acid functional group. Application to the design of potent thromboxane (A2) receptor antagonists. J. Med. Chem., 54:6969-6983.
Ballatore C, Brunden KR, Trojanowski JQ, Lee VM-Y, Smith AB III and Huryn D (2011) Modulation of protein-protein interactions as a therapeutic strategy for the treatment of tauopathies. Curr. Topics Med. Chem., 11:317-330.
Crowe A, Huang W, Ballatore C, Johnson RL, Hogan, AML, Huang R, Wichterman J, McCoy J, Huryn D, Auld DS, Smith AB III, Inglese J, Trojanowski JQ, Austin CP, Brunden KR, Lee VM-Y (2009) Identification of aminothienopyridazine inhibitors of tau assembly by quantitative high-throughput screening. Biochemistry 48:7732-7745
Brunden KR, Trojanowski JQ and Lee, VM-Y (2009) Advancements in tau-focused drug discovery for Alzheimer’s disease and related tauopathies. Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, 8:783-793.
Ballatore C, Brunden KR, Piscitelli, F, James, MJ, Crowe A, Yao Y, Hyde E, Trojanowski JQ, Lee VM-Y and Smith AB III. (2010) Discovery of brain-penetrant, orally bioavailable aminothienopyridazine inhibitors of tau aggregation. J. Med. Chem., 53:3739-3747.
Brunden KR, Ballatore C, Crowe A, Smith AB, III, Lee, VM-Y and Trojanowski JQ (2010) Tau-directed drug discovery for Alzheimer’s disease and related tauopathies: a focus on tau assembly inhibitors. Exp. Neurol., 223:304-310.
Brunden KR, Zhang B, Carroll J, Yao Y, Potuzak JS, Hogan A-ML, Iba M, James MJ, Xie SX, Ballatore C, Smith AB III, Lee VM-Y and Trojanowski JQ (2010) Epothilone D improves microtubule density, axonal integrity and cognition in a transgenic mouse model of tauopathy. J. Neurosci., 30:13861-13866.
Brunden KR, Yao Y, Potuzak JS, Ibarz Ferrer N, Ballatore C, James MJ, Hogan AL, Trojanowski JQ, Amos Smith AB, III and Lee VM-Y. (2011) The Characterization of Microtubule-Stabilizing Drugs as Possible Therapeutic Agents for Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Tauopathies. Pharmacol. Res., 63:341-351.
Kim, ML, Zhang, B, Mills, IP, Milla, ME, Brunden, KR and Lee, VM-Y (2008) Effects of TNFα-converting enzyme inhibition in amyloid β production and APP processing in vitro and in vivo. J. Neurosci. 28:12052-12061.
Brunden KR, Trojanowski, JQ and Lee VM (2008) Evidence that non-fibrillar tau causes pathology linked to neurodegeneration and behavioral impairments. J. Alzheimers Dis. 14(4):393-399.