PhD
Research Professor; Director, Lead Discovery and Characterization
Eshelman School of Pharmacy
UNC-Chapel Hill
Molecular Therapeutics
Area of Interest
The central aim of our work is discovery and characterization of small molecule and peptide-based modulators of therapeutically-relevant targets and pathways, with a particular emphasis on cancer. To initiate drug discovery programs, we utilize focused set and high throughput diversity set screens to discover starting points for medicinal chemistry and optimization efforts. My fundamental research skills are in protein biochemistry, biophysics, assay design, compound screening, hit validation, and cellular assay development. I spent nearly two decades at GlaxoSmithKline research and development where I gained experience for a wide variety of therapeutic areas including: antibacterials, antivirals, metabolic diseases, cancer, inflammatory diseases, and tissue fibrosis. Throughout this period, I led multi disciplined teams for both early and late stage drug discovery programs. My background in pharmaceutical research has given me valuable experiences, both with target-based methods and more recently phenotypic-based methods for tool and drug discovery.
