Dr. Levon Halabelian's research aims to develop new medicines by targeting how proteins interact with each other inside cells. Many diseases, including cancer and neurodegenerative disorders, arise when these protein interaction networks stop working properly. His laboratory focuses on a large family of proteins known as WD40 repeat (WDR) proteins, which act as interaction hubs that coordinate many important cellular processes. Despite their importance, most WDR proteins have not yet been explored as drug targets.
Using a combination of structural biology, chemical biology, and artificial intelligence–guided drug discovery, Dr. Halabelian's team works to identify small molecules that can selectively control these proteins. Current projects focus on disease-related WDR proteins such as LRRK2, DDB1, DCAF1, FBXW7, and WDR91, which play key roles in pathways involved in cancer and neurodegeneration. A major goal of this research is to create new strategies for treating disease by either blocking harmful protein interactions or harnessing the cell's own protein disposal system to remove disease-causing proteins. These approaches, known as targeted protein degradation and E3 ligase modulation, represent a new therapeutic modalities that could lead to more effective and selective treatments for patients.
Dr. Halabelian has been an Affiliate Scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre since 2025 and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Toronto since 2021. He is a structural and chemical biologist whose research focuses on accelerating small-molecule drug discovery for cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. His work integrates atomic-level structural insights with cutting-edge hit-finding technologies, including DNA-encoded libraries coupled with machine learning (DEL-ML) and enantioselective affinity selection mass spectrometry (E-ASMS), to identify and optimize high-quality chemical probes and therapeutic candidates.
Dr. Halabelian’s research has provided foundational structural and mechanistic insights into diverse human proteins, including DNA repair factors, RNA-modifying enzymes, and epigenetic regulators. His contributions have advanced our understanding of the molecular underpinnings of genome maintenance, RNA biology, and chromatin regulation, and have enabled the development of widely used small-molecule tools for probing protein function.