George Holz, PhD

PREVIOUS APPOINTMENTS

RESEARCH ABSTRACT

Drug discovery research in the Holz laboratory at SUNY Upstate seeks to establish new pharmacological approaches to the treatment of type 2 diabetes and obesity. In this regard, our prior findings helped lead to FDA approval of the GLP-1 receptor agonists Byetta, Victoza, Ozempic and Wegovy as new blood glucose-lowering agents with appetite-suppressing properties. One focus of the laboratory now concerns synthetic hyprid peptides with GPCR activating properties, as validated in high-throughput FRET assays using cAMP and Ca2+ biosensors. Such hybrid peptides incorporating amino acid motifs within GLP-1, Glucagon, GIP and Peptide YY are likely to be of a unique medical importance in that they have the potential to exhibit novel dual or tri agonist properties with subcutaneous administration.