Robert Copeland

Robert Copeland has been a pioneer in targeting protein arginine methyltransferases for cancer therapy, leading the characterization of PRMT5 as an oncology target and the development of PRMT5 inhibitors. His research demonstrated that PRMT5 is essential for RNA splicing fidelity and that its inhibition causes selective toxicity in MTAP-deleted cancers through accumulation of MTA metabolite. He established the synthetic lethal relationship between MTAP deletion and PRMT5 dependency that provides a biomarker-driven therapeutic strategy applicable to approximately 15% of all cancers. His work on epigenetic enzyme drug discovery has expanded the druggable epigenetic target space.