[3] Nomura is also the Co-Director of the Molecular Therapeutics Initiative with Professor Roberto Zoncu at UC Berkeley [4].

There he discovered a role for monoacylglycerol lipase in generating oncogenic signaling lipids that promote cancer[5] and in proinflammatory cascades that impact neurodegenerative disorders.

His work focuses on implementing chemoproteomic platforms to develop small molecule therapeutics against traditionally "undruggable" proteins.

These approaches have led to the discovery of novel inhibitors and new ligands that expand the scope of proteolysis targeting chimeras (PROTACS),[7] which are bifunctional molecules that harness the cells ubiquitin-proteasome system to degrade targets of interest.

Notable recent discoveries include an inhibitor of mTORC1,[8] a molecular glue between UBR7 and p53 that activates p53 tumor suppressor activity,[9] a covalent inhibitor against MYC,[10] novel covalent recruiters against E3 ubiquitin ligases such as RNF114, RNF4, and FEM1B for targeted protein degradation applications,[11][12][13] the Deubiquitinase Targeting Chimera (DUBTAC) platform for targeted protein stabilization,[14] and a chemical rational design strategy for developing molecular glue degraders.