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Levon Halabelian

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Assistant ProfessorDepartment of Pharmacology and ToxicologyUniversity of Toronto

Levon Halabelian

Assistant Professor

Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

University of Toronto

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Supervision signals

Professors usually supervise graduate students in their department's programs.
34 publications in the last five years, latest in 2026.
Senior (last) author on 9 recent papers, a sign of leading a research group.
Principal investigator on 2 research grants (1 ONTARIO, 1 CFI), most recently in 2024.

These signals come from public records, including federal and provincial funding decisions. Ask the professor or the graduate program whether they are taking new students.

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Publications

1,349

Citations

Collaborators

Grants

Publications by year

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Signals and details

Research

Read how they describe their research on their University of Toronto profile.

Latest papers

An Atlas of Short Linear Motif-Mediated Human Protein-Protein Interactions.
bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026
Identification and optimization of first-in-class RNA helicase inhibitors of DDX1, LGP2, and MDA5
European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry · 2026
High-throughput protein target mapping enables accelerated bioactivity discovery for ToxCast and PFAS compounds.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026

All 50 publications

Latest funding

Revolutionizing AI-Driven Drug Discovery Through Large-Scale Data Generation
CFI · 2025 · Co-investigator
$2,796,318
Enabling a high-throughput drug discovery pipeline for targeting disease-related human proteins.
ONTARIO · 2024 · Principal investigator
$439,721
Centre for Protein Target Enabling Packages (ProTEP)
CFI · 2023 · Co-investigator
$1,564,999

All 4 grants and awards

50 publications.

An Atlas of Short Linear Motif-Mediated Human Protein-Protein Interactions.

Madhu P, Benz C, Simonetti L, Winters MJ, Subbanna MS, Kliche J, Gomez-Lucas L, Kotb HM, Krystkowiak I, Segal D, Darling WTP, Larsen-Ledet S, Vieler M, Zupancic A, Konstantinou A, Mihalic F, Varga JK, Pagano L, Lüchow S, Kraemer A, Ellingboe L, Görlitz K, Righetto GL, Kossmann C, Xiong R, Schueler-Furman O, Halabelian L, Santhakumar V, Arrowsmith C, Knapp S, Erdelyi M, Stein A, Vincentelli R, Pryciak PM, Davey NE, Ivarsson Y

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology2026Open Access

DOI: 10.64898/2026.07.03.735260 PMID: 42465437

Identification and optimization of first-in-class RNA helicase inhibitors of DDX1, LGP2, and MDA5

Xiaowen Wang, Feijun Wang, Deyu Kong, Dilipkumar Uredi, F. Li, F. Li, Jayachandra Rayadurgam, Hongxia Li, Esther Wolf, U.Hang Chan, Irene Chau, Hong Zeng, Julia Garcia Perez, Derek J. Wilson, Frances M. Bashore, Xiaodong Wang, Levon Halabelian, Kevin J. Frankowski, Dmitri Kireev, Alison D. Axtman

European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry2026Open Access

DOI: 10.1016/j.ejmech.2026.118724 PMID: 41795418

High-throughput protein target mapping enables accelerated bioactivity discovery for ToxCast and PFAS compounds.

Yang D, Wang X, Liu J, Gong Y, Nair P, Sun J, Qian X, Cui J, Zeng H, Dong A, Harding RJ, Burgess-Brown N, Beyett TS, Song D, Krause HM, Diamond ML, Bolhuis DL, Brown NG, Arrowsmith CH, Edwards AM, Halabelian L, Peng H

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2026

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2515940123 PMID: 42247526

A Target Class Ligandability Evaluation of WD40 Repeat-Containing Proteins.

Ackloo S, Li F, Szewczyk M, Seitova A, Loppnau P, Zeng H, Xu J, Ahmad S, Arnautova YA, Baghaie AJ, Beldar S, Bolotokova A, Centrella PA, Chau I, Clark MA, Cuozzo JW, Dehghani-Tafti S, Disch JS, Dong A, Dumas A, Feng JA, Ghiabi P, Gibson E, Gilmer J, Goldman B, Green SR, Guié MA, Guilinger JP, Harms N, Herasymenko O, Houliston S, Hutchinson A, Kearnes S, Keefe AD, Kimani SW, Kramer T, Kutera M, Kwak HA, Lento C, Li Y, Liu J, Loup J, Machado RAC, Mulhern CJ, Perveen S, Righetto GL, Riley P, Shrestha S, Sigel EA, Silva M, Sintchak MD, Slakman BL, Taylor RD, Thompson J, Torng W, Underkoffler C, von Rechenberg M, Walsh RT, Watson I, Wilson DJ, Wolf E, Yadav M, Yazdi AK, Zhang J, Zhang Y, Santhakumar V, Edwards AM, Barsyte-Lovejoy D, Schapira M, Brown PJ, Halabelian L, Arrowsmith CH

Journal of medicinal chemistry202525 citationsOpen Access

DOI: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.4c02010 PMID: 39495097

Identification of Direct-Acting nsP2 Helicase Inhibitors with Antialphaviral Activity

M. Bose, John D. Sears, Kacey Marie Talbot, Yuan-Wei Norman Su, Scott R. Houliston, Mohammad Anwar Hossain, Zachary W. Davis‐Gilbert, Chunqing Zhao, Hans J. Oh, Peter J. Brown, Marcia K. Sanders, Stella R. Moorman, Durbadal Ojha, Jane Burdick, Isabella Law, Noah L. Morales, Sabian A. Martinez, P. Loppnau, Julia Garcia Perez, Adam M. Drobish, Thomas E. Morrison, Zachary J. Streblow, Daniel N. Streblow, C.H. Arrowsmith, Ava M. Vargason, Rafael M. Couñago, Levon Halabelian, Jamie J. Arnold, Craig E. Cameron, Nathaniel J. Moorman, et al. (32 authors)

Journal of Medicinal Chemistry20259 citationsOpen Access

DOI: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.5c00635 PMID: 40634283

Potent and selective SETDB1 covalent negative allosteric modulator reduces methyltransferase activity in cells.

Uguen M, Shell DJ, Silva M, Deng Y, Li F, Szewczyk MM, Yang K, Zhao Y, Stashko MA, Norris-Drouin JL, Waybright JM, Beldar S, Rectenwald JM, Mordant AL, Webb TS, Herring LE, Arrowsmith CH, Ackloo S, Gygi SP, McGinty RK, Barsyte-Lovejoy D, Liu P, Halabelian L, James LI, Pearce KH, Frye SV

Nature communications20259 citationsOpen Access

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-57005-3 PMID: 39994194

Enantioselective Protein Affinity Selection Mass Spectrometry (E-ASMS).

Wang X, Sun J, Ahmad S, Yang D, Li F, Chan UH, Zeng H, Simoben CV, Green SR, Silva M, Houliston S, Dong A, Bolotokova A, Gibson E, Kutera M, Ghiabi P, Kondratov I, Matviyuk T, Chuprina A, Mavridi D, Lenz C, Joerger AC, Brown BD, Heath RB, Yue WW, Robbie LK, Beyett TS, Müller S, Knapp S, Harding R, Schapira M, Brown PJ, Santhakumar V, Ackloo S, Arrowsmith CH, Edwards AM, Peng H, Halabelian L

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology20257 citationsSenior authorOpen Access

DOI: 10.1101/2025.01.17.633682 PMID: 39896675

Functionally active modulators targeting the LRRK2 WD40 repeat domain identified by FRASE-bot in CACHE Challenge #1.

Mettu A, Glavatskikh M, Wang X, Lara Ordóñez AJ, Li F, Chau I, Ackloo S, Arrowsmith C, Bolotokova A, Ghiabi P, Gibson E, Halabelian L, Houliston S, Harding RJ, Hutchinson A, Loppnau P, Perveen S, Seitova A, Zeng H, Schapira M, Taymans JM, Kireev D

Chemical science20256 citationsOpen Access

DOI: 10.1039/d4sc07532c PMID: 39877816

Enantioselective Chemical Probe for Chikungunya nsP2 Helicase with Antialphaviral Activity

M. Bose, Hans J. Oh, John D. Sears, Chun‐Hsing Chen, Anand G. Vala, Shubin Liu, Kacey Marie Talbot, Mohammad Anwar Hossain, Peter J. Brown, Scott R. Houliston, Julia Garcia Perez, Fengling Li, Meareg Amare, Peter Halfmann, Jessica Louise Smith, Alec J. Hirsch, C.H. Arrowsmith, Levon Halabelian, Ava M. Vargason, Rafael M. Couñago, Jamie J. Arnold, Craig E. Cameron, Nathaniel J. Moorman, Mark T. Heise, Timothy Mark Willson

ACS Infectious Diseases20256 citationsOpen Access

DOI: 10.1021/acsinfecdis.5c00351 PMID: 40680191

Enabling Open Machine Learning of Deoxyribonucleic Acid-Encoded Library Selections to Accelerate the Discovery of Small Molecule Protein Binders.

Wellnitz J, Ahmad S, Bagale N, Cheng X, Joseph J, Zeng H, Bolotokova A, Dong A, Reza S, Ghiabi P, Gibson E, Tu G, Li X, Liu J, Dou D, Li J, Foley TL, Harris AR, Klug-McLeod JL, Lee J, Lengyel-Zhand Z, Montgomery JI, Sakata S, Zhang J, Zhu H, Owen DR, Harding RJ, Edwards AM, Haibe-Kains B, Halabelian L, Tropsha A, Couñago RM

Journal of medicinal chemistry20255 citationsOpen Access

DOI: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.5c01972 PMID: 41047897

Revolutionizing AI-Driven Drug Discovery Through Large-Scale Data Generation

Co-investigatorCFI2025Innovation Fund: Innovation Fund 2025 Stream 1 (open)

Principal investigators: Benjamin Haibe-Kains, Hui Peng

Keywords: Data Generation, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Drug Discovery, Protein-Small Molecule Interactions, High-throughput Screening, Open Data Database Development, Protein Production, Mass Spec, Biophysical Assays

$2,796,318

Enabling a high-throughput drug discovery pipeline for targeting disease-related human proteins.

Principal investigatorONTARIO2024Ontario Research Fund - Research Infrastructure: Small Infrastructure Fund - Round 057 - 2023 - March

Principal investigators: Halabelian, Levon

Keywords: drug discovery, chemical probe, structural biology, protein biochemistry, openscience

$439,721

Centre for Protein Target Enabling Packages (ProTEP)

Co-investigatorCFI2023Innovation Fund: Innovation Fund 2023

Principal investigators: Arrowsmith, Cheryl

Keywords: protein biochemistry, open science, biophysics, cell assays, target enabling packages, omics, drug discovery, AI-assisted drug discovery, chemical probes high content microscope, isothermal titration calorimetry, HPLC-MS, servers

$1,564,999

Enabling a high-throughput drug discovery pipeline for targeting disease-related human proteins.

Principal investigatorCFI2023John R. Evans Leaders Fund: John R. Evans Leaders Fund – Funding for research infrastructure

Principal investigators: Halabelian, Levon

Keywords: drug discovery, chemical probe, structural biology, protein biochemistry, open science X-ray detector, equipment for protein production/ purification

$439,721

From public funding decisions: CIHR since 2008, NSERC since 1991 and SSHRC since 1998 with their latest competition results, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, Genome Canada, the Canadian Space Agency, Canada Research Chairs, the Fonds de recherche du Québec, Ontario research funding, Michael Smith Health Research BC, the Canadian Cancer Society, Heart & Stroke and Brain Canada.

Profile data last refreshed on September 29, 2026 from the university directory, publication records and public research funding records.

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Levon Halabelian

Research

Latest papers

Latest funding

An Atlas of Short Linear Motif-Mediated Human Protein-Protein Interactions.

Identification and optimization of first-in-class RNA helicase inhibitors of DDX1, LGP2, and MDA5

High-throughput protein target mapping enables accelerated bioactivity discovery for ToxCast and PFAS compounds.

A Target Class Ligandability Evaluation of WD40 Repeat-Containing Proteins.

Identification of Direct-Acting nsP2 Helicase Inhibitors with Antialphaviral Activity

Potent and selective SETDB1 covalent negative allosteric modulator reduces methyltransferase activity in cells.

Enantioselective Protein Affinity Selection Mass Spectrometry (E-ASMS).

Functionally active modulators targeting the LRRK2 WD40 repeat domain identified by FRASE-bot in CACHE Challenge #1.

Enantioselective Chemical Probe for Chikungunya nsP2 Helicase with Antialphaviral Activity

Enabling Open Machine Learning of Deoxyribonucleic Acid-Encoded Library Selections to Accelerate the Discovery of Small Molecule Protein Binders.

Revolutionizing AI-Driven Drug Discovery Through Large-Scale Data Generation

Enabling a high-throughput drug discovery pipeline for targeting disease-related human proteins.

Centre for Protein Target Enabling Packages (ProTEP)

Enabling a high-throughput drug discovery pipeline for targeting disease-related human proteins.

Frequent collaborators

Cheryl Arrowsmith

Dalia Barsyte-Lovejoy

Matthieu Schapira

Masoud Vedadi

Rachel Harding

Rima Al-awar

Aled Edwards

Ahmed Aman

Gennady Poda

Hui Peng

David Uehling

Derek Wilson

Stéphane Richard

Artem Cherkasov

Francesco Gentile

Anne-Claude Gingras

Jun Ding

Hernan Gonorazky

Borhane Annabi

Sriram Subramaniam

Alexandre Gagnon

Datong Song

Bri Watson