Dr. Ruben Abagyan is a Professor at the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of California, San Diego, which he joined in 2009. He received his Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in molecular physics at MPTI and MSU. At the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg he developed internal coordinate mechanics and structural docking approach (ICM) for modeling and docking. He received his tenure at New York University and Courant Institute of Mathematics and continued at the Novartis Institute and the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. Dr. Abagyan serves on international review panels for Institutes in Switzerland, UK, EU, and Hong Kong. He received CapCure awards, Princess Diana Award and medal in Sydney, Australia, American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy Teacher of the Year award, and UCSD-SSPPS 'Faculty of the Year' awards. R.A. authored and co-authored 340 research papers and book chapters, with over 40,000 citations and H-index of 96. His research interests include computational structural biology, methods for structure prediction, docking screens, and cheminformatics, with a particular focus on computer-aided drug and target discovery. In addition to molecular profiles, he also studies the FDA clinical records and unexpected post-marketing side effects of therapeutics.

• AI/Machine Learning for Early Drug Discovery - Part 2

Emel Adaligil is a Senior Scientific Manager at Genentech where she leads macrocycle discovery and mRNA display platform. She received her PhD in chemistry from Tufts University where she developed peptide antibiotics composed of D-amino acids active against S. aureus and MRSA with the same action mechanism of vancomycin. Then, she completed her postdoc studies at Genentech working on developing cell-permeable macrocyclic peptides, structure elucidation of macrocyclic peptides by NMR spectroscopy, and computational methods and technology development of mRNA display platform.

• Oral & Macrocyclic Peptides: Discovery to Development - Part 1

Bryce Allen, Ph.D. was the founding Head of Integrated Data Sciences at Silicon Therapeutics and played a key role in building the company from three employees to over one hundred, culminating in its acquisition by Roivant Sciences in 2021, driven in large part by the cutting edge computational platform. During that period he spearheaded the development and application of the computational platform to drug discovery projects. He played a leading role in the discovery and optimization of SNX281, a first-in-class small molecule STING agonist currently in phase I clinical trials, taking the program from an initial AI discovered hit to a clinical candidate in <3 years. Starting his career at the bench, Bryce has accumulated domain expertise across biology, medicinal chemistry, physics, and computer science enabling the development of practical computer-aided discovery to drive data-driven decision making in drug development programs. He holds an Adjunct Faculty appointment in The Institute for Experiential AI at Northeastern University in Boston, MA, and is the author of >30 publications and patents. Bryce was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Biomedical Informatics at Harvard Medical School and holds a Ph.D. in Molecular & Cellular Pharmacology from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

• AI/Machine Learning for Early Drug Discovery - Part 2

Angelo Andres is a Senior Scientist within the Chemical Biology & Proteomics group at AstraZeneca. Before embarking on his scientific journey he served in the GWOT with the U.S. Army. He then earned a PhD in Medicinal Chemistry from The University of Kansas where he specialized in the development of cellular probes and assays to study live cell target engagement by small molecules. At AstraZeneca he collaborates across functions to develop lysosomal degradation modalities, generate synthetic probes to facilitate lead generation, and applies proteomics to support drug discovery programs across multiple therapeutic modalities spanning small molecules, degraders, and cell therapies.

• Chemical Biology for Covalent Drug Discovery, Phenotypic Screening, and Target Deconvolution

No bio available.

• Fragment-Based Drug Discovery

Jonathan Baell is Executive Director, Early Leads Chemistry at Lyterian Therapeutics in South San Francisco. Prior to 2023, he was Research Professor and Director of the Australian Translational Medicinal Chemistry Facility, which he established and grew over a decade. He has more than 25 years of experience in medicinal chemistry-led drug discovery and development, with more than 150 publications and 9000 citations, including first author Nature 2018, and several dozen granted patents, outcomes for which include licensing deals and clinically trialed drug candidates. His translational efforts have resulted in major awards. He holds significant editorial and societal positions and is Senior Editor of Future Medicinal Chemistry and Chair of the International Chemical Biology Society. His passion is HTS library design, hit triage, and hit-to-lead and lead optimization. He is perhaps best known as the inaugural architect of the field of PAINS.

• Oral & Macrocyclic Peptides: Discovery to Development - Part 2

As the Head of Drug Discovery at Plexium, Simon oversees the company’s efforts to identify novel protein degrader drugs that address significant unmet medical needs. Simon joined Plexium in 2019, bringing more than 25 years of experience in medicinal chemistry and small molecule drug discovery leadership. From 1995-2016, Simon had leadership roles in medicinal chemistry at Pfizer and subsequently he was the Head of Research and Global Pipeline Leader for Intercept Pharmaceuticals. Simon gained his Ph.D. and was the Hibbert Prize winner in synthetic organic chemistry at the University of Manchester and completed postdoctoral studies under Prof. Leo Paquette. He earned an MBA from the University of California, San Diego. Simon is a 2021 recipient of the American Chemical Society’s Hero of Chemistry award for his role in the discovery of Lorbrena.

• Oral & Macrocyclic Peptides: Discovery to Development - Part 2

No bio available.

• AI/Machine Learning for Early Drug Discovery - Part 1

Gaurav Bhardwaj is an Assistant Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Washington and the Institute for Protein Design. He received his doctoral degree from the Pennsylvania State University. He did his postdoc with Dr. Kit Lam at the University of California, Davis, and Dr. David Baker at the University of Washington, Seattle. His lab focuses on developing computational and experimental methods to design peptides for therapeutic applications.

• Oral & Macrocyclic Peptides: Discovery to Development - Part 1

I did my PhD in Molecular Neuroscience in Jean-Pierre Changeux lab at Pasteur Institute in Paris. I worked on structure elucidation by X-ray crystallogrpahy of the first pentameric ligand gated ion channel in an open conformation. I then moved at Friedrich Miescher Institute in Nico Thoma's lab as a Post-doctoral fellow where I worked on the structural and biochemical characterization of protein complexes involved in DNA remodeling, particularly the human Toposisomerase alpha/RMI1 complex. As a post-doctoral fellow and then as scientist I moved to Roche in Basel where I established SPR (Surface Plasmon resonance) measurements with small molecules on membrane protein targets. I also worked there on membrane protein production, characterization, and their interactions with small molecules in multiple indications like antibiotics, Neuroscience or Oncology. I strenghten my membrane protein background by moving to LeadXpro, a CRO specialized in membrane protein biophysics and structural biology where I was head of biochemistry & biophysics. I developed the biophysics platform by investing in GCI (Grated coupled interferometry) and other technologies. I worked on small molecules progams spanning Oncology, Neuroscience, Fungicides, Inflammation and Infective diseases. I decided then to move to FoRx Therapeutics where I am currently as Director of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Structural biology. FoRx specialized in small molecule inhibitors in the DNA damage and repair field in which we bank on synthetic lethality concepts to find targets and inhibit them in cancer. FoRx is a clinical stage company with its main asset, FoRx-428, a best-in-class PARG inhibitor, currently in phase 1.

• Fragment-Based Drug Discovery

25+ years of experience within Pfizer Research and Development focusing on target-ligand interactions using a variety of biophysical techniques. The earlier part of my career was spent was largely focused on protein NMR techniques to solve protein structures and evaluate ligand binding. In an effort to provide greater impacts, my efforts turned towards a variety of biosensing techniques (SPR, BLI, SPRm) to access binding interactions for targets across the Pfizer portfolio. With recent technology development, I have been able to apply these biophysical techniques to membrane proteins in the whole cell environment as well as in membrane preparations.

• Fragment-Based Drug Discovery

Dr. Bradley is a multi-disciplinary scientist in computer-aided compound design using structural data. He completed a first-class MChem in Chemistry from the University of Oxford in 2010. He carried out an interdisciplinary DPhil also at the University of Oxford on the SABS-IDC programme. During this he developed computational tools (OOMMPPAA and WONKA) for structure-based drug design-working with the SGC Oxford and GlaxoSmithKline. Subsequent to his DPhil, he carried out a postdoc at the RCSB PDB (UC San Diego) where he worked on novel compression algorithms for macromolecules, including the MMTF file format. He then worked as a Project Leader with the Oxford Chemistry department, Diamond Light Source, and the SGC Oxford on the XChem project (high-throughput X-ray screening of fragments). Here he generated tools and future funding for fragment-based compound optimisation leveraging the XChem platform. From 2018 to 2024, he worked at Exscientia, where he developed their physics-based drug discovery platform. Now he leads an academic group at the University of Liverpool where his interests lie in using computation and automation to accelerate drug design.

• AI/Machine Learning for Early Drug Discovery - Part 1

Paul Brennan received his PhD in organic chemistry from UC Berkeley. Following post-doctoral research at Cambridge University, Paul spent eight years working in the pharmaceutical industry at Amgen and Pfizer. After leaving Pfizer in 2011, Paul joined the Structural Genomics Consortium at the University of Oxford and led the chemical probes discovery effort on epigenetic targets. After leaving the SGC in 2019, Paul was Head of Chemistry and then Chief Scientific Officer of the Alzheimer’s Research UK Oxford Drug Discovery Institute where his research was focused on finding new treatments for dementia. In addition to dementia, over the course of his career, Paul has worked on discovering new medicines for cancer, incontinence, pain, rare diseases, and inflammation. Paul is currently Professor of Medicinal Chemistry and Director of the Centre for Medicines Discovery at the University of Oxford and a scientific advisor to the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. His research centre is focused on early medicines discovery for poorly treated diseases.

• Chemical Biology for Covalent Drug Discovery, Phenotypic Screening, and Target Deconvolution

Benjamin Brennecke, PhD, is a scientist in the Roche DEL technology group located in Basel, Switzerland. He earned his PhD in chemistry working on enzymatically activatable luminescent probes under the supervision of Marc Nazaré at the Leibniz Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pharmakologie (FMP) Berlin. He then moved to Geneva, Switzerland, for his Postdoc with Prof. Nicolas Winssinger, developing combinatorial library generation methods for PNA-tagged affinity proteins. At Roche, Benjamin currently works on chemistry and methodology implementation for DNA-encoded libraries.

• DNA-Encoded Libraries

Yong Cang is the Co-founder and CSO of Degron Therapeutics. He is a scientific leader in targeted protein degradation, ubiquitin ligase biology, and cancer immunotherapy with 30+ publications in top biomedical journals. Dr. Cang pioneers novel molecular glue degrader discovery strategies, with a focus on screening approach development and mechanistic understanding of interactions between molecular glue drugs, ubiquitin ligases, and neo-substrates. Dr. Cang is a professor and head of the Laboratory of Targeted Protein Degradation in the School of Life Science and Technology of ShanghaiTech University. He previously was an assistant professor in the NCI-designated Cancer Center of Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute and a professor of Zhejiang University. Dr. Cang consulted for pharmaceutical industry and venture funds. Dr. Cang received a Bachelor of Science degree from Fudan University and a PhD in Molecular Genetics from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He completed his postdoctoral training with Professor Stephen Goff at Columbia University and HHMI.

• Degraders & Molecular Glues - Part 2

I am currently working in China Innovation Center of Roche (CICoR) as a senior principal scientist and the group leader of Protein Design and Biostructure (PDB) group in Lead Discovery Department. In this role I am responsible for protein design and protein chemistry efforts, and biophysical studies on molecular targets and mechanism of actions as well as fragment based screening. I also have extensive experience in structure determination of soluble and membrane proteins, biochemistry and biophysics for protein characterization. I graduated in 2007 from Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica (SIMM), Chinese Academy of Sciences with Ph.D. Degree in drug design, and received the postdoctoral trainings (2007-2012) in University of Luebeck, Germany and Weill Cornell Medical College, USA.

• Fragment-Based Drug Discovery

No bio available.

• AI/Machine Learning for Early Drug Discovery - Part 1

Rajeev S. Chorghade, PhD, Principal Scientist, Affinity Selections & Biophysics, GlaxoSmithKline Rajeev completed his graduate studies in Professor Marty Burke’s lab at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he developed a mechanism to address cystic fibrosis (CF) with an ion-channel forming small molecule that restored anion secretion in airway epithelia independent of the defective CFTR protein. This work initiated ongoing clinical trials in people with CF. He then completed postdoctoral research in Professor Laura Kiessling’s lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he developed biophysical and biochemical assays to investigate the mechanisms by which carbohydrate-binding proteins, lectins, identify and respond to extracellular glycans on microbial pathogens. Currently, he works at GSK within the Encoded Technologies platform, where he develops assays for DNA-encoded small molecule and oligonucleotide selection methodology and hit qualification/development.

• DNA-Encoded Libraries

Gabriele is the co-founder and CEO of Boltz, a company building the AI models and software tools to enable a new era in drug discovery and biological research. Gabriele received his PhD at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory where he developed state-of-the-art models for biomolecular modeling, including DiffDock, Boltz-1 and Boltz-2.

• Generative AI & Predictive Modeling

Simona Cotesta earned her PhD in Biochemistry from ETH Zurich in 2002, where she studied protein flexibility using molecular dynamic simulations. She then worked as a post-doctoral fellow in the molecular modeling groups of GSK, Pharmacia, and Roche from 2002 to 2005. In 2005, she joined Novartis' Computer Aided Drug Discovery (CADD) team in Basel. Since 2015, she has been a chemistry project team leader in the field of Oncology. Starting in 2022, she leads a group at the intersection of CADD and chemistry within Novartis' Global Discovery Chemistry team. From Sept. 2024, she is global Head of a Chemistry team, focusing on research in the field of renal and exploratory diseases.

• AI/Machine Learning for Early Drug Discovery - Part 1

Gerald Crabtree is the David Korn Professor of Pathology at Stanford University. He is best known for developing chemical inducers of proximity in collaboration with Stuart Schreiber. These molecules have been used to define the role of induced proximity in biology and to develop new therapeutics.

• Covalent & Induced Proximity-Based Drugs

Arvin Dar is a member and professor in the Chemical Biology Program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center’s Sloan Kettering Institute, where he is also vice director of the Center for Experimental Therapeutics. Dr. Dar graduated from the University of Western Ontario with a BSc in chemistry, earned his PhD from the University of Toronto, and received postdoctoral training at the University of California, San Francisco. Prior to joining MSK in June of 2023, Dr. Dar led an independent research group at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai for approximately 10 years. Dr. Dar’s research is focused on kinase structural biology and small molecule design and synthesis. His laboratory has discovered several leads for therapeutic development, including chemical switches and molecular glues to target genetically defined cancers driven by the RAS and WNT pathways. In addition, Dr. Dar co-founded Nested Therapeutics (nestedtx.com) to advance innovative therapeutics aimed at challenging cancer targets and to increase the number of patients that benefit from precision medicine. Dr. Dar has received numerous awards and honors for his research, including the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovation Award, the Pew Charitable Trusts’ Pew-Stewart Scholars for Cancer Research award, Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance Award, Junior Faculty Award at Mount Sinai, and the Mark Foundation for Cancer Research ASPIRE Award.

• Degraders & Molecular Glues - Part 2

As Senior Vice President, Head of Drug Discovery at Kymera Therapeutics, Chris was responsible for medicinal and computational chemistry, lead discovery (biochemistry, biophysics, structural biology), preclinical development (DMPK and Toxicology), and proteomics. His team contributed to all drug discovery phases at Kymera from project inception through to clinical candidate discovery and beyond. Prior to joining Kymera, Chris was head of chemistry at Blueprint Medicines, a precision medicine company specialized in kinase drug discovery and development. Chris has deep experience in leading discovery research groups and project teams in both global pharmaceutical and biotech companies. He has directly contributed to the invention of 9 clinical candidate drugs for oncology and inflammation disease - most recently BLU-945, an EGFR T790M/C797S triple mutant inhibitor for the treatment of lung cancer, AZD4573, a selective CDK9 inhibitor for the treatment of haematological malignancies and AZD9496, an oral, selective estrogen receptor degrader for the treatment of ER+ breast cancer. He co-discovered Barasertib (AZD1152), a selective Inhibitor of Aurora B kinase for the treatment of AML. He is an author of over 50 peer-reviewed publications and patents in the fields of medicinal chemistry and drug discovery and a PhD qualified chemist who has previously held academic positions at Queens’ College Cambridge and University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.

• AI/Machine Learning for Early Drug Discovery - Part 2

Anwesha Dey is a Director and Distinguished Scientist in the Discovery Oncology Department at Genentech. Prior to this position, she held postdoctoral research fellowships in the laboratory of Vishva Dixit at Genentech and at the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB), A*STAR, Singapore, in the laboratory of Sir David Lane. Her scientific research at Genentech is focused on understanding the biology of Hippo and PI3K signaling pathways and how they can be targeted for cancer therapy. She has served as both the Project Team Leader and Biology Lead for multiple drug discovery programs at Genentech. Anwesha has published extensively in several high impact journals. She serves on the Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) of the Keystone Symposia and is a recipient of the 2022 GWP Emerging Leader Award at Genentech and the 2023 Distinguished Service Alumni award from University of Maryland at Baltimore County.

• Targeting Transcription Factors & Regulators

José is the Global Head of Computer-Aided Drug Discovery (CADD), part of Global Discovery Chemistry at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR). José joined Novartis in 2010, after ten years with the Schering-Plough Research Institute and Merck Research Laboratories in Kenilworth, NJ, USA, where he had increasing responsibilities in the CADD group. His expertise covers computational medicinal chemistry, molecular thinking, novel modes of action to drug the undruggable, ab initio calculations, molecular recognition, kinetics, solvation, protein-protein interactions and structure-based drug design. José is constantly pushing the frontiers of drug discovery, where he has contributed novel approaches for many projects in complex target spaces. With the vision of a fully integrated computational drug discovery team, bringing together drug discovery knowledge with hard-core physics and math and leveraging the fast evolution of the computational field, José has built an outstanding global team. José is passionate about innovation, servant leadership, music, baseball, football, and wine. He is on a mission to help drug discovery find the fastest path to impact human medicine.

• AI/Machine Learning for Early Drug Discovery - Part 1

Nathan received his Ph.D. from the University of California, where he developed synthetic methodologies. After completing his graduate studies, he worked as a Postdoc at the University of Southern California where he helped develop novel antifungal agents by targeting the bromodomain containing protein Bdf1. Nathan joined Circle in 2021 and is a Sr. Scientist in the medicinal chemistry department.

• Oral & Macrocyclic Peptides: Discovery to Development - Part 1

Kyle Eastman is VP and Head of Chemistry at Halda Therapeutics in New Haven, CT, where he and his colleagues have invented the novel bifunctional technology RIPTAC Therapeutics. The Halda team progressed their lead prostate program asset HLD-0915 into the clinic in Q1 2025. Previously, Kyle was a program leader at Achillion where he helped advance the complement pipeline including support for the notable Factor D program and initiation of an additional complement pathway discovery program that together contributed to a near $1 billion acquisition by Alexion. Before Achillion, Kyle had spent almost a decade working across several virology programs at BMS in Wallingford, CT. During this time Kyle and his lab invented and contributed to several compounds advanced to the internal BMS development organization including the invention of the first pan-genotype HCV inhibitor. Additional efforts from his lab resulted in the invention of a host of orally bioavailable lead compounds targeting a novel HIV target that became a focal point in the BMS HIV divestiture to ViiV/GSK. Prior to beginning his career at BMS, Kyle spent two years at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) working with Phil Baran for post-doctoral studies. Kyle earned his PhD in synthetic organic chemistry at The Pennsylvania State University in 2006.

• Targeting Protein-Protein Interactions

Matthew Eddy received his PhD in physical chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the laboratory of Professor Robert Griffin. During his PhD, Dr. Eddy developed new approaches for using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) in the solid state to determine structures of membrane proteins in cellular-like environments. Following his PhD, Dr. Eddy joined the laboratories of Professors Raymond Stevens and Kurt Wüthrich at The Scripps Research Institute as an American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellow, applying an integrative structural biology approach to study human G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) and focusing on applications of nuclear magnetic resonance to improve our understanding of GPCR allosteric functions. Dr. Eddy is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Florida and affiliated faculty of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory. His group continues to study human GPCRs to understand the role of the cellular environment in regulating GPCR dynamics, structure, and function.

• Fragment-Based Drug Discovery

Jim joined Samsara BioCapital as a Venture Partner in Fall 2022 and has over 28 years of experience in drug discovery across multiple therapeutic disciplines. Prior to joining Samsara, Jim spent 22 years at Janssen Research & Development in roles of increasing responsibility. Most recently, he was Vice President and Global Head, In Silico Discovery & External Innovation, leading a multi-disciplinary group of computational & data scientists providing predictive and design tools across all modalities within the Therapeutics Discovery organization at Janssen. Prior to this, he was Vice President, Discovery Chemistry, leading drug discovery teams at multiple sites in the US and Europe. These teams were responsible for the discovery of small molecule drug candidates working with partners across all six Therapeutic Areas within JRD and delivered clinical-stage small molecule drug candidates against targets ranging from kinases (e.g., BTK, JAK) & other enzymes (MALT1) to cytokines (IL17) & cytokine receptors (IL23R).

• AI/Machine Learning for Early Drug Discovery - Part 2

Veronika is trained as an organic chemist and earned her PhD from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich. After completing postdoctoral research at Stanford University, she joined Novartis’ Global Discovery Chemistry team in Basel in 2014, where she supported several immunology projects before transitioning to the oncology group. In that team, she led chemistry projects ranging from early hit identification to lead optimization across different pathways and modalities, such as protein-protein disruptors, molecular glue degraders, and allosteric and covalent small molecule inhibitors. Currently, Veronika is a project and group leader, responsible for a targeted therapy project with a focus on the application of various AI/ML and generative chemistry approaches.

• Targeting Protein-Protein Interactions

Michael Erb is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute. He graduated with a BA in biochemistry from Claremont McKenna College in 2014, received his PhD from Harvard University under the mentorship of Jay Bradner in 2017, and began his independent career as one of the inaugural Scripps Fellows in 2017. His laboratory develops chemical tools to modulate tumorigenic gene regulatory programs, leveraging specific expertise in high-throughput chemical synthesis, chemically induced proximity, forward genetics, and transcriptional genomics to address challenging targets like DNA-binding transcription factors. Dr. Erb is the recipient of an NIH Director’s Early Independence Award (2018) and an Ono Pharma Foundation Breakthrough Science Initiative Award (2020).

• Covalent & Induced Proximity-Based Drugs

Dr. Daniel A. Erlanson is the Chief Innovation Officer for Frontier Medicines, which is using covalent fragments, machine learning, and chemoproteomics to target proteins often thought undruggable. Prior to Frontier he co-founded Carmot Therapeutics, where he contributed to two clinical-stage molecules. Before Carmot, Dr. Erlanson spent a decade developing fragment-based discovery technologies and leading medicinal chemistry projects at Sunesis Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Erlanson was an NIH postdoctoral fellow with James A. Wells at Genentech, earned his PhD in chemistry from Harvard University in the laboratory of Gregory L. Verdine, and his BA in chemistry from Carleton College. He has co-edited two books on fragment-based drug discovery and is an inventor on more than a dozen issued patents and an author of more than forty scientific publications. He also runs a blog devoted to fragment-based drug discovery, Practical Fragments (http://practicalfragments.blogspot.com/).

• AI/Machine Learning for Early Drug Discovery - Part 2

John Erve is from Chicago and studied Chemistry (BS, MS) at the University of Chicago and earned a PhD in Toxicology at Oregon State University. Following postdoctoral work at Vanderbilt (1995-1999) he joined BD-Biosciences (Woburn, MA) as a Study Director. In 2002, he joined AstraZeneca (Sweden) where he characterized reactive metabolites. In 2004 he joined Wyeth (Collegeville, PA) as a Principal Scientist responsible for metabolite identification. In 2010, John joined Novartis (Cambridge, MA) as a Lab Head in Analytical Sciences. John returned to drug metabolism at Elan Pharmaceuticals (San Francisco, CA) in 2012 and later formed Jerve Scientific Consulting, Inc to help small biotech companies in the Bay area with their drug discovery efforts. John was a certified D.A.B.T. from 2004 to 2019.

• Protein Degraders: A Beyond Rule of Five Space and in vitro ADME Perspective

Silvia Escudero, PhD, is a Principal Scientist at Foghorn Therapeutics, where she focuses on targeting the chromatin regulatory system to develop novel cancer therapies. Trained as a biochemist and cell biologist, Silvia now applies her expertise to address some of the most challenging drug targets in oncology. She earned her PhD in Biological Chemistry from Harvard University, conducting research in Dr. Loren Walensky’s laboratory on anti-apoptotic proteins and their roles in metabolism. She holds dual bachelor's degrees in Chemistry and Cellular Biology from the University of Michigan.

• Degraders & Molecular Glues - Part 1

Dr. Federation is the co-founder and CEO of Talus Bio. He received his graduate degree in chemical biology from Harvard University where he trained with Jay Bradner developing chemical probes for gene regulator proteins. He completed a postdoc at the Altius Institute for Biomedical Sciences in Seattle with John Stamatoyannopoulos and Mike MacCoss developing genome-wide assays to study gene regulator activity. This work was spun into Talus Bio in 2020.

• Targeting Transcription Factors & Regulators

Dr. Ferguson received her MSc in Chemistry from Imperial College London, and her PhD in Chemistry from the University of Cambridge. At Cambridge, Fleur worked in the laboratories of Professors Chris Abell and Alessio Ciulli where she used fragment-based ligand discovery techniques to evaluate the ligandability of bromodomains as the target class, and develop inhibitors of BAZ2B. Fleur joined the laboratory of Professor Nathanael Gray at Harvard Medical School and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute as a postdoctoral fellow in 2015. Her postdoctoral work has focused on employing medicinal chemistry techniques to generate high-quality chemical probes, and using them to investigate the biological functions of understudied kinase targets, such as CDK14 and DCLK1. In addition, Fleur is also interested in targeted protein degradation; here she is using chemoproteomic approaches to understand the chemical and cellular variables that contribute to successful small molecule induced degradation across the kinome, and applying targeted protein degradation to clear misfolded tau proteins in dementia. She recently started her new position at University of California in San Diego.

• Covalent & Induced Proximity-Based Drugs

Dillon Flood, PhD, is a scientist and entrepreneur based in San Diego with expertise in oligonucleotides, peptides, and bioconjugation chemistry. He is Scientific Director at Elsie Biotechnologies, a GSK company, where he leads innovation in delivery and screening platforms. Prior to Elsie’s acquisition by GSK, he co-founded the company and guided its scientific and strategic growth. Dillon earned his PhD in Chemistry from The Scripps Research Institute and BS in Chemical Biology from UC Berkeley.

• RNA-Modulating Small Molecule Drugs

Tim first obtained his BSc in cell biology and biochemistry and then a MSc in organic chemistry at the University of California - San Diego (UCSD). Still at UCSD, he pursued inhibitors of bacterial natural product biosynthesis and received his Ph.D. in chemistry in 2010. He conducted his post-doctoral studies at the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) at the NIH from 2010 to 2014. In this position, he further developed his knowledge of enzymology and molecular pharmacology in the context of high throughput screening. Tim joined Pfizer in February 2014 to support the Pfizer Centers for Therapeutic Innovation portfolio and the Serine Hydrolase Gene Family platform. Tim’s lab guides pharmacology assay design and execution for projects to support hit discovery and compound optimization into clinical candidates. Since 2017, he has been leading the organizational effort to develop hit identification capabilities with DNA-encoded library technologies.

• DNA-Encoded Libraries

George joined Shattuck Labs in 2017, where he is one of the scientific co-founders and currently serves as Chief Scientific Officer. Previously, George served as the Senior Director of Research and Development at Heat Biologics, Inc., where he directed the Discovery and Clinical based research efforts for their Phase I/II trials, and co-invented a ‘next-generation’ vaccine platform that combines a cell-based immunotherapy vaccine and a T cell costimulatory fusion protein in a single treatment. He has authored IND submissions, NIH and Private Foundation Grants, and numerous publications in leading journals, including Cell, Molecular Cell, Genes and Development, and Blood. He received his MS and PhD from the University of Rochester, NY and conducted his postdoctoral fellowship training with the NIH branch; National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

• Covalent & Induced Proximity-Based Drugs

Dr. Fuchs received his PhD in Biology from Saint Louis University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Division of Surgical Oncology at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center. As an Assistant Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, his NIH-funded lab focused on preclinical drug development and non-invasive biomarker discovery for GI diseases. He has over 20 years of experience studying fibrosis, inflammatory diseases, and oncology. He is currently the Research Therapeutic Area Head for Gastroenterology at Ferring Pharmaceuticals.

• Degraders & Molecular Glues - Part 2

Emily Garcia Sega obtained her PhD in organic chemistry from the University of California, San Diego. Following a postdoctoral appointment at Ithaca College, Emily began her career as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Bridgewater State University with research focused on utilizing small molecules to target RNA as well as Quorum Sensing. Emily later moved to Western New England University, where she earned tenure and promotion to Associate Professor. After 10 years in academia, Emily decided on a career pivot and has been enjoying her new career in the biotechnology industry as a Medicinal Chemist at Arrakis Therapeutics since 2021.

• RNA-Modulating Small Molecule Drugs

Amanda L. Garner is a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Michigan. She received her Ph.D. in Chemistry in 2008 from the University of Pittsburgh working under the supervision of Professor Kazunori Koide in the areas of fluorescent chemosensors and solid-phase organic synthesis. She completed NIH-funded postdoctoral studies in the laboratory of Professor Kim Janda at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California working in the area of chemical biology. Dr. Garner’s independent research integrates chemical biology, medicinal chemistry and molecular and cellular biology approaches for studying disease-relevant processes in RNA biology, in particular cap-dependent mRNA translation and microRNA-mediated gene regulation.

• RNA-Modulating Small Molecule Drugs

Sujatha Gopalakrishnan is leading the centralized Molecular Screening and Characterization group at Abbvie. Her team supports various therapeutic areas in assay development, screening, and advancing compounds including elucidation of the SAR and mechanistic studies for early-stage drug discovery efforts. She joined Abbott/Abbvie in 1995, and since then has held positions of increasing responsibility leading highly-productive scientific teams. With early Discovery, she has been advancing a range of assay platforms/technologies for target-based and phenotypic screens that impacted Abbvie pipeline. Sujatha is an author of over 45 peer-reviewed manuscripts as well as a co-inventor on two patents.

• Targeting Protein-Protein Interactions

Sai Gourisankar, PhD is an NCI K99/R00 Postdoctoral Fellow at the Stanford Cancer Institute in the laboratory of Prof. Nathanael Gray. His PhD was in chemical engineering, advised by Prof. Gerald Crabtree, where he investigated mechanisms of epigenetic regulation in cancer and development. Dr. Gourisankar’s postdoctoral work focuses on developing new small molecule technologies to target and reprogram oncogenic drivers for therapeutic applications, particularly using chemical induced proximity approaches and enabled by biochemistry and genomics.

• Degraders & Molecular Glues - Part 1

Markus is a seasoned R&D executive with three decades of experience in Drug Discovery and Early Development across a broad range of disease areas. He currently serves as Executive Vice President of Discovery Science at Parabilis Medicines, which includes driving the advancement of Helicon degraders, a novel therapeutic modality. Prior to this role, he was Senior Vice President and Head of Research at Alkermes, where he played a central role in building a high-performing research organization distinguished by its focus on superior molecular design for both small molecules and biologics. Among the key achievements during his tenure was the discovery of ALKS 2680, a potent Orexin 2 Receptor agonist developed for the treatment of narcolepsy-targeting a receptor long considered challenging to drug. Before Alkermes, Markus was Chief Scientific Officer at Proteostasis Therapeutics, a biotech focused on diseases caused by improper protein degradation, folding and trafficking. Prior to that, Markus spent 15 years at AstraZeneca and held roles of increasing scope and responsibility, including leading AstraZeneca’s Global Chemistry Network where he was responsible for the company’s global chemistry strategy and implementation. A key focus of his strategy was the Predictive Chemistry platform utilizing state-of-the-art computational chemistry methods to improve the design of drug molecules. Markus holds a M.Sc. in Physical Chemistry, Biochemistry, Organic Chemistry and a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry/Computational Chemistry from the Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden.

• Degraders & Molecular Glues - Part 2

Robin Haid is a Modeling & Simulation Expert in Bayer’s Preclinical M&S group, currently on secondment with Vividion in San Diego. He aims to integrate the experimental data routinely collected in drug discovery to generate a better, more mechanistic understanding that propels projects forward. Robin recently received his PhD in Chemistry and Applied Biosciences from ETH Zurich, where he worked on the PK/PD Modeling of Targeted Protein Degraders. His seminal papers on the topic have garnered significant attention, and he has been featured as a speaker at several international conferences.

• Degraders & Molecular Glues - Part 2

No bio available.

• AI/Machine Learning for Early Drug Discovery - Part 2

Johannes Hermann is an early pioneer in machine learning/AI approaches to accelerate drug discovery, with over a decade of leadership experience driving healthcare innovation and hunting drugs using AI. As the global head for Data Science at Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices Technology, Johannes integrated AI into digital & robotic surgery, sensor-based patient rehab assistance, and personalized patient treatment and risk assessments. As Janssen Pharmaceuticals’ global head of machine learning and advanced analytics, Johannes drove AI initiatives across the pharmaceutical value chain, from R&D to production and commercialization. Johannes started his career at Roche as a data scientist and drug designer. Johannes holds a PhD in quantum & molecular mechanics from the University of Düsseldorf, with postgraduate work at University of Bristol and UC San Francisco. As the CTO of Frontier Medicines, Johannes is deploying AI/ML to discover and develop breakthrough drugs against ‘undruggable’ targets.

• AI/Machine Learning for Early Drug Discovery - Part 2

Jürgen Hinrichs completed his PhD in Germany, working on stereoselective biaryl synthesis with G. Bringmann in Würzburg. After a postdoc on the total synthesis of the marine toxin azaspiracid with K. C. Nicolaou at Scripps, La Jolla, USA, he joined Novartis in Basel, Switzerland, in 2002. Jürgen started in the CombiChem group and then transitioned to Oncology where he has worked on several small (and not so small) molecule projects, and more recently also on degraders, ADCs and now RLTs. He was a key contributor to the discovery of the WRN helicase inhibitor HRO761, which is currently in Ph. 1 for MSI colorectal cancer.

• Fragment-Based Drug Discovery

Stephen is a senior research scientist in the Center for Therapeutics Discovery and at the Stanford Cancer Institute. At Stanford, his work focuses on using chemically induced proximity to discover powerful new pharmacology. He also drives challenging medicinal chemistry projects focused on high-value clinical targets. Before this, he was an undergraduate at Stanford and received a PhD at Harvard from the Program in Genetics and Genomics, where he made contributions to the fields of cohesin biology and chromosome organization. After this, Stephen was a Helen Hay Whitney Postdoctoral Fellow supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Harvard Medical School, where he used cryo-EM to determine the molecular structures of protein complexes that underlie genetic inheritance in normal and cancerous cells.

• Degraders & Molecular Glues - Part 1

Prof. Hsu earned his PhD in Chemistry and Biochemistry from The University of Texas at Austin and completed his postdoctoral training at The Scripps Research Institute. The Hsu Laboratory focuses on the discovery of bioactive molecules. A central theme of the group is the development of covalent probes and inhibitors for investigating protein and lipid activity. Research in the group is multidisciplinary and uses a combination of organic synthesis, bioanalytical chemistry, and bioorganic chemistry. Current efforts include identifying new reactive chemistry, quantifying ligandability of proteins on a proteomic scale, and deciphering structure and function of membrane signals in living systems. Ultimately, the goal is to develop new molecules to enable chemical biology and therapeutic discovery. Prof. Hsu’s research program has been recognized by several awards including the highly competitive NIH K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award, Department of Defense CDMRP Career Development Award, Melanoma Research Alliance Young Investigator Award, the NSF CAREER Award, the Emerging Leader Award from The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research, and CPRIT Recruitment of Rising Stars Award.

• Degraders & Molecular Glues - Part 1

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at San Diego State University. My research group develops analytical methods and predictive models to investigate cell membrane permeability and identify molecular features that enable efficient transmembrane transport. By exploring membrane properties such as lipid composition and chirality, we aim to inform the rational design of molecules capable of functioning in vivo. Our work integrates synthesis, biophysics, and microfluidic technologies to discover cell-permeable ligands for traditionally “undruggable” targets.

• Oral & Macrocyclic Peptides: Discovery to Development - Part 2

Anthony Iannetta is a Senior Scientist within the Chemical Biology and Proteomics group at AstraZeneca. Prior to joining the team, Anthony received his PhD in Chemistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he applied mass spectrometry-based proteomics techniques to probe the dynamics of post-translational modifications and protein-protein interactions in stress response signaling networks. At AstraZeneca, he applies proteomics to impact drug discovery programs, mainly focusing on target identification, target engagement, and selectivity for programs pursuing degraders and covalent inhibitors. His career interests lie in pushing the throughput and capacity of this technology so that chemoproteomics/proteomics can be more frequently applied as a hit ID approach and integrated into DMTA cascades.

• Degraders & Molecular Glues - Part 1

No bio available.

• AI/Machine Learning for Early Drug Discovery - Part 2

Petrina Kamya, PhD, is the Head of AI Platforms and President of Insilico Medicine, Canada an end-to-end artificial intelligence-driven drug discovery company. Before joining Insilico, Dr. Kamya spent eight years in various roles at Chemical Computing Group that involved scientific and business-related aspects of preclinical drug discovery. In addition to establishing the corporate strategy for the sales and business development of molecular modeling software for academia, she also played an active role as an application scientist working on real-world discovery projects and finally in a senior role in strategy and business development for pharma and biotech companies. Following her time at CCG, Petrina moved to Certara as a Market Access Manager, where she learned first-hand the challenges of getting drugs to market. Petrina has been with Insilico Medicine since August 2020. She holds a PhD in Chemistry (specializing in computational chemistry) from Concordia University.

• Generative AI & Predictive Modeling

Jamie is a Vice President with OMX Ventures. Prior to OMX, Jamie developed deep experience in early-stage biotech investing and company creation while working on the investment team at RA Capital. In that role, he served on the board of Enara Bio, Avilar Therapeutics, and Hyku Therapeutics. Before joining RA, he was a Director at Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund and served as a Board Director of both Tilos Therapeutics (acquired by Merck & Co.) and Rewind Therapeutics.

• AI/Machine Learning for Early Drug Discovery - Part 2

György M. Keseru obtained his Ph.D. at Budapest, Hungary and joined Sanofi heading a chemistry research lab. He moved to Gedeon Richter in 1999 and he was appointed as the Head of Discovery Chemistry in 2007. He contributed to the discovery of the antipsychotic Vraylar® (cariprazine) that has been approved and marketed from 2016 in US and EU. He served as a director general of the Research Centre for Natural Sciences at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. From 2015 he is heading the Medicinal Chemistry Research Group. György published over 250 papers and he is a co-inventor in 21 patents. He was awarded by the prestigious Overton and Meyer Award of the European Federation of Medicinal Chemistry and has been elected as Corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

• Fragment-Based Drug Discovery

Rabia Khan, Ph.D., MBA, is the founder and CEO of Serna Bio. Trained in immunology and genetics, Dr. Khan was previously an executive at Sensyne Health. As Managing Director of Discovery Sciences, she established the scientific strategy, built the data science and discovery teams of over 50 in machine learning and clinical research, and transacted partnerships with Bayer, BMS, Roche, Alexion, and others. Dr. Khan has also held senior roles at BenevolentAI and Meta (acquired by Chan Zuckerberg BioHub). Born in Pakistan, educated in Canada, and has led multinational teams spanning the UK, Canada, and the US, Dr. Khan is passionate about diversity in science. She was named one of 50 Movers and Shakers in BioBusiness and 30 Rising Leaders in Biotech 2020.

• AI/Machine Learning for Early Drug Discovery - Part 1

Dr. Nur Kocaturk is a postdoctoral researcher in the Farnaby Group within CeTPD at the University of Dundee. A cell biologist with over a decade of experience in protein and organelle homeostasis, she shifted her research focus slightly to targeted protein degradation (TPD) in January 2021 upon joining Gopal Sapkota’s lab as a postdoctoral researcher. There, she contributed to expanding the E3 ligase toolbox for TPD applications and played a key role in discovering new induced-proximity degraders, including KLHDC2. Dr. Kocaturk currently leads drug discovery projects aimed at developing novel CNS-active molecular glues and PROTACs, designing innovative screening and validation strategies to advance the understanding of CNS biology.

• Targeting Protein-Protein Interactions

Prof. Thomas Kodadek received his B.S. in Chemistry at the University of Miami (FL) in 1981 and his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Stanford University in 1985. He then pursued postdoctoral studies in the laboratory of Prof. Bruce Alberts at the University of California, San Francisco Medical School from 1985-1987. In the fall of 1987, he joined the faculty of Chemistry & Biochemistry at the University of Texas at Austin, rising to the rank of full professor. In 1998, he moved to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas where he served as Professor of Internal Medicine and Molecular Biology, as well as the Director of the Division of Translational Research. In June 2009, Prof. Kodadek moved to the Scripps Research Institute campus in Jupiter, FL (now UF Scripps Biomedical Research) where he is Professor of Chemistry. Prof. Kodadek works in the field of chemical biology, which involves the development of chemical tools to monitor and manipulate important processes in biology and medicine. He co-founded Deluge Biotechnologies in 2017 and Triana Biosciences in 2022.

• Fragment-Based Drug Discovery

No bio available.

• DNA-Encoded Libraries

Casey obtained his Ph. D. in Biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the area of chemical biology, with an emphasis on new chemical tools for mass spectrometry-based proteomic analysis. He then conducted postdoctoral training at Stanford University working on the directed evolution of synthetic molecules using DNA programmed synthesis. He began his independent career in 2013 at Purdue University in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology. His group works on applications of DNA-encoded libraries with a focus on novel selection approaches for expanding DEL target scope and the use of DNA-encoded molecules as proteomic activity probes.

• DNA-Encoded Libraries

Krishna Kumar is Robinson Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Tufts University. He is a Member of the Cancer Center at the Tufts Medical Center in Boston. He received his PhD from Brown University in 1996 and after postdoctoral studies at the Scripps Research Institute joined Tufts in 1998. Kumar’s contributions to science, and in particular chemistry and medicine, have been recognized widely. He was named a DuPont Young Professor, recognized as one of the top 35 young innovators in the world by MIT Technology Review magazine (TR35), awarded a Global Indus Technovator award from MIT-IBC, is a recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER award, Technology award from the Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center, Excellence in Chemical Sciences Award from the Indian Society for Chemistry and Biology and was elected a Fellow of the American Association of the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK). His contributions to science range from the origin of life, peptide and protein design, medicinal chemistry, biophysics and cell and molecular biology. In particular, he is credited with developing therapeutics for a wide range of infectious and metabolic diseases.

• Oral & Macrocyclic Peptides: Discovery to Development - Part 1

Dr. Li is a chemical biologist whose work bridges covalent chemistry, RNA biology, and therapeutic discovery. He was trained as a Herchel Smith Fellow at Harvard University under Professor Stuart L. Schreiber, where he focused on using small molecules to probe and reprogram ferroptosis. He is currently a Damon Runyon Fellow and NCI K99/R00 Fellow at The Scripps Research Institute, working with Professor Benjamin F. Cravatt. Dr. Li’s current research investigates how small molecules can rewire RNA processing. Small nuclear RNAs (snRNAs) are essential structural and catalytic components of the spliceosome, the molecular machine that removes introns from pre-mRNA. Dr. Li and colleagues have discovered a potent, selective covalent ligand that modifies TOE1, a 3' RNA exonuclease, but only when TOE1 is bound to the Sm complex. This compound functions as a “molecular clamp,” locking TOE1 onto the Sm complex, massively stabilizing that interaction, and driving excessive trimming of snRNA 3' ends in cells. This work reveals a previously hidden layer of spliceosome regulation and suggests a strategy to therapeutically target splicing-related disease by chemically controlling snRNA maturation.

• RNA-Modulating Small Molecule Drugs

Dr. Ewa Lis is the Founder and CEO of Koliber Biosciences, a pioneering computational biology company that leverages an advanced AI platform for the discovery and optimization of peptides. With a rich background in both computer science and biological sciences, Dr. Lis's expertise encompasses deep learning, data augmentation, graph networks, and various domains of biology and chemistry. Before establishing Koliber Biosciences in 2014, she held key positions at Life Technologies, Genomatica, and Reveal Biosciences, where she contributed to the development of diverse technologies ranging from algorithms for pathology tissue classification to tools for genome engineering research and sustainable microbial chemicals. Dr. Lis earned her BA in Chemistry from Cornell University and her PhD in Biological Sciences from The Scripps Research Institute.

• AI/Machine Learning for Early Drug Discovery - Part 2

Lei Liu obtained PhD from the Chemistry Department of Columbia University in 2004. He went to Scripps Research to carry out postdoc studies from 2004 to 2007. Since 2007 he has been working in the Chemistry Department of Tsinghua University. His group studies chemical protein synthesis and applications to biomedicine.

• Degraders & Molecular Glues - Part 1

Scott Lokey received his PhD at the University of Texas, Austin in Organic Chemistry, where his research centered on the synthesis of molecules that fold into protein-like shapes in water and bind to specific DNA sequences. He did post-doctoral research at Genentech, where he worked on the synthesis of bioactive cyclic peptides, and then at Harvard Medical School, on the synthesis of molecules designed to disrupt cellular processes related to motility. He joined the faculty at UCSC in 2002 in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, where his research group focuses on the relationship between molecular structure and drug-like properties, especially cell permeability. Professor Lokey is also Director of the UCSC Chemical Screening Center, a high-throughput screening facility dedicated to early-stage lead discovery, especially against infectious agents and neglected disease targets.

• Oral & Macrocyclic Peptides: Discovery to Development - Part 2

Dr. Xiaojie Lu received his PhD at Brandeis University working on the organocatalytic asymmetric peroxidation reaction of electronic deficient olefins in 2010, then, he joined GlaxoSmithKline for early-stage drug discovery at molecular research department in Boston. As a research investigator, he has been working on the design and synthesis of DNA encoded chemical libraries to identify small molecule ligands for biologically interesting targets. In 2016, Dr. Lu was awarded GSK associate fellow. Since July 2017, he has joined the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, CAS as the principal investigator. His current research interest focused on the design and synthesis of DNA encoded focused library for the lead generation of challenge drug targets.

• DNA-Encoded Libraries

Olivier Mailhot, PhD, is a computational biophysicist and cheminformatician whose work bridges AI and structure-based drug discovery. He leads a new lab at the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC), Université de Montréal, focused on AI-accelerated physics-based virtual screening. Trained as a postdoctoral fellow with Prof. Brian Shoichet at UCSF, he develops algorithms that extend molecular docking to tera-scale libraries and beyond. His group integrates exhaustive docking with ML-driven ADMET modeling in close collaboration with experimental teams on oncology targets.

• AI/Machine Learning for Early Drug Discovery - Part 2

No bio available.

• AI/Machine Learning for Early Drug Discovery - Part 1

Jordan Mattheisen received her B.Sci. degree in Biochemistry from Simmons University in Boston in 2017. She joined the Tri-Institutional Program in Chemical Biology as a graduate student and received her PhD from The Rockefeller University in 2023. Her dissertation focused on GPCRs and the development of a method to enhance fragment-based drug screening in live cells using genetic code expansion technology and bioorthogonal chemistry. She is currently working as a postdoctoral fellow in the Chemical Biology and Proteomics group at AstraZeneca, with a maintained interest in membrane proteins and targeted protein degradation modalities.

• Targeting Protein-Protein Interactions

Campbell McInnes, PhD, is Professor in Medicinal Chemistry at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, has experience in Drug Discovery in both Industry and in Academia. Prior to joining USC, he was the Head of Structure-Based Drug Design at Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals, a company started by Professor Sir David Lane, one of the discoverers of the P53 tumor suppressor protein. Research in the McInnes Laboratory centers on discovering novel chemical entities based on inhibiting protein-protein interactions and specifically focuses on using the REPLACE methodology, a structure-guided fragment-based design approach employing the techniques of computational chemistry, structural biology, and synthetic organic chemistry. REPLACE is being applied to develop selective kinase inhibitors where a clear rationale for kinase selectivity has been established or where targeting the ATP binding site is problematic and current targets include PLK1, CDK2, and BRAF. Dr. McInnes has also founded the PPI Pharmaceuticals, LLC, to commercialize his academic discoveries.

• Degraders & Molecular Glues - Part 1

I received a PhD from the Department of Chemistry at Wayne State University in the laboratory of William Hase. There, I explored and developed methods to model intermolecular forces that drive molecular recognition and ensuing chemical reactions. As a postdoc, I joined the bioorganic laboratory of Dr. Shahriar Mobashery first at Wayne State University and then at the University of Notre Dame. I worked on understanding the mechanism by which ß-lactamases hydrolyze ß-lactam antibiotics. I was also involved in the development of mechanism-based (covalent) small-molecule inhibitors of matrix metalloproteinases, cathepsins, and ß-lactamases. In my lab at Indiana University, we develop small molecules to modulate the function of proteins involved in promoting tumor growth and metastasis. We are currently developing small-molecule modulators of protein interactions of Ras-like and Rho GTPases, the TEAD-Yap transcription factor complex, and the urokinase receptor uPAR. We investigate compounds and their targets in breast, pancreatic, lung and brain cancer cells and animal models. Some of these small molecules are used to probe their targets in spinal cord and traumatic brain injury as well as neurodegenerative diseases through collaborations. In addition to my funding from the National Institutes of Health, I am a recipient of a Research Scholar Award from the American Cancer Society. I am a member of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center, and the Stark Neurosciences Institute.

• Targeting Transcription Factors & Regulators

No bio available.

• Oral & Macrocyclic Peptides: Discovery to Development - Part 1

Kyle Miller obtained his PhD from the University of College London in the lab of Julie Cooper studying telomeres and their roles in replication and genome maintenance in fission yeast (2004). He then was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California San Francisco focusing on chromatin and genome stability in budding yeast in the lab of Dr. David Tocyzski. He next completed another postdoctoral training in the lab of Prof. Stephen Jackson at the Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge, England. This work focused on understanding the role of histone modifications and chromatin modifying enzymes in DNA double-strand break repair. In 2011, he joined the faculty of the University of Texas at Austin and was promoted to the rank of Professor/with tenure in the Department of Molecular Biosciences. In January 1, 2025, he moved his lab to Emory University where he is a Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology and a member of the Winship Cancer Institute. Currently, his research aims to understand genome maintenance and the DNA damage response in the context of chromatin, cancer and anticancer therapies. His lab employs genetics, genomics, cell biology and molecular biology approaches to to define the relationship between chromatin and DNA damage responses, as well as gaining insights into the mechanisms of cancer therapeutic drugs that act at the chromatin and DNA level. His work has obtained funding from the National Cancer Institute (NIH), Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT), American Cancer Society, the Keck Foundation and NASA.

• Emerging Technologies for Discovery Chemistry

Terry W. Moore is a Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Illinois Chicago. His research program focuses on designing, synthesizing, and characterizing new small molecule and peptide probes to modulate protein targets. Terry’s lab at UIC uses the tools of synthetic medicinal chemistry, peptide chemistry, drug discovery and chemical biology. He earned his PhD in chemistry under the guidance of John Katzenellenbogen at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and completed postdoctoral studies with Dennis Liotta at Emory University.

• Targeting Transcription Factors & Regulators

Dr. Ella Morishita is the Chief Scientific Officer at Veritas In Silico, a leading biotech company in Japan specializing in mRNA-targeted drug discovery. With a background in X-ray crystallography and structure-based drug design, Dr. Morishita has played a pivotal role in developing innovative biophysical and computational approaches, including bioinformatics, chemoinformatics, and AI, to accelerate and refine drug discovery processes. At Veritas In Silico, she spearheads the company’s small molecule drug discovery efforts and has overseen over 50 collaborative research programs with top pharmaceutical and biotech companies in Japan and globally, advancing the discovery of novel therapies targeting mRNA. With more than 20 years of expertise in mRNA targeting, beginning with her PhD research at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Dr. Morishita has published extensively in the field, further establishing Veritas In Silico as a global leader in the emerging field of mRNA-targeted therapeutics.

• RNA-Modulating Small Molecule Drugs

No bio available.

• Generative AI & Predictive Modeling

Sridhar Narayan is a scientist and entrepreneur with extensive experience in the life sciences industry. Prior to ReviR, he was VP of Drug Discovery and Program Leadership at Satellos Bioscience, which he helped launch in 2018. In 2015, he was involved in starting Appili Therapeutics where he served as Project Director and Member of the Scientific Advisory Board until 2020. Previously, Sridhar held scientific leadership positions at AstraZeneca and Eisai, where he led projects from early discovery through IND and FIH studies. He has a track record of moving several compounds into clinical development and his expertise spans oncology, immunology/inflammation, metabolic disorders, CNS, and infectious diseases. Sridhar received his PhD from the University of Michigan and carried out postdoctoral research at the Scripps Research Institute. He holds an MBA from the Yale School of Management

• Targeting Transcription Factors & Regulators

Thomas E. Nielsen received his PhD from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) for work in the field of natural product total synthesis under the supervision of Professor David Tanner. He then carried out postdoctoral studies at the Carlsberg Laboratory (with Professor Morten Meldal, 2003-2005), and Harvard University and the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT (with Professor Stuart L. Schreiber, 2006-2007), working within various areas of chemical biology research. In 2008, he returned to DTU Chemistry and co-founded the Center for Antimicrobial Research (CAR), heading the development of new synthesis methodology, bioactive materials, and assay technologies, and joined SCELSE, Nanyang Technological University in 2010 as a visiting professor. In 2014, he became Director of Protein & Peptide Chemistry, Novo Nordisk, and affiliated as professor at the Department of Immunology and Microbiology, University of Copenhagen. A central theme in his research is the chemical synthesis of small molecules, peptides and modified proteins to probe biological phenomena, and ultimately provide basis for the development of new medicines to treat diabetes, obesity, and many other diseases. He is currently Corporate Vice President of Drug Product Research, Therapeutics Discovery, Novo Nordisk. He has received several national and international scientific awards, and is the co-author of more than 100 journal publications and patents.

• Oral & Macrocyclic Peptides: Discovery to Development - Part 1

Sherry Niessen is the Head of Platform & Proteomics at Belharra Therapeutics and is focused on chemical probe discovery in cells through chemoproteomics. She has 15+ years of experience in chemical biology and proteomics. Prior to joining Belharra, she was at Pfizer in La Jolla, leading a chemoproteomics group focused on oncology drug discovery with an emphasis on target engagement, biomarker discovery, and mechanism of action of proteins and small molecules. Sherry completed her PhD at The Scripps Research Institute in the laboratory of Dr. Ben Cravatt, her MS in Experimental Medicine from McGill University, and a BS in Biochemistry from Simon Fraser University.

• Targeting Transcription Factors & Regulators

Evan O’Brien received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry and biochemistry from the University of Pittsburgh, followed by his doctoral work with Dr. Joshua Wand at the University of Pennsylvania. While in Dr. Wand’s lab, Evan focused on using structural and dynamic solution NMR methods to probe lipid-protein interactions and fast-timescale dynamics. His work on dynamics and entropy in well-characterized systems drove his interest in exploring these phenomena with more complex human membrane protein systems. To that end, he started his postdoctoral work with Dr. Brian Kobilka at Stanford University in 2018. His early work in the Kobilka lab involved using various fluorescence techniques to interrogate GPCR dynamics, which resulted in a highly multi-disciplinary effort to characterize how unique Family B GPCR structural properties result in distinct signaling behavior. More recent work in the Kobilka lab has continued to focus on combining biophysical techniques with cryoEM to discover and characterize novel mechanisms of GPCR allosteric modulation using small molecules.

• DNA-Encoded Libraries

Atsushi Ohta received a Ph.D. from The University of Tokyo, Japan, in 2009. He joined Chugai Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., in 2009 and has been working for cyclic peptide drug discovery. He had also been participating in developing LUNA18 currently in a clinical trial.

• Oral & Macrocyclic Peptides: Discovery to Development - Part 1

Tudor I. Oprea is a digital drug hunter with three decades of experience in knowledge management applied to target and drug discovery. He co-developed ChemGPS, the “lead-like approach,” systems chemical biology, and a knowledge-based classification for human proteins. He co-discovered the first GPER agonist (orphan drug designated, LNS8801), GPER antagonist, and several GLUT transporter inhibitors. His machine-learning models include cheminformatics, drug discovery, disease, and target biology. His team maintains DrugCentral and Pharos, part of an NIH Common Fund project. He co-authored over 300 publications and 10 US patents and edited 2 books on informatics in drug discovery. He is CSO at Expert Systems, Inc., a San Diego-based i2020 Accelerator company.

• AI/Machine Learning for Early Drug Discovery - Part 2

I am working on small-molecule modulation of 14-3-3 Protein-Protein Interactions with a special focus on natural products and fragment-based ligand discovery. I was involved in several early drug discovery projects with the pharmaceutical industry and was initiator and coordinator of the FP7 Industry-Academia Partnership and Pathways (IAPP) 14-3-3STABS and the Horizon2020 European Training Network (ETN) TASPPI. Before taking up my current position at Eindhoven University of Technology and Ambagon Therapeutics, I was a group leader at the Chemical Genomics Centre (CGC) of the Max Planck Society in Dortmund, Germany. Together with Luc Brunsveld (TU/e) and Michelle Arkin (UCSF), we founded Ambagon Therapeutics where I serve as Chief Scientific Officer. In both my academic work and now at Ambagon, I am dedicated towards making the 14-3-3 interactome druggable, developing new small-molecule treatment options for a range of diseases.

• Targeting Protein-Protein Interactions

No bio available.

• AI/Machine Learning for Early Drug Discovery - Part 2

Brian M. Paegel earned his undergraduate degree in chemistry from Duke University and his Ph.D. in chemistry from UC Berkeley as a student of Richard Mathies working on miniaturized and integrated DNA sequencing technology development in collaboration with the Human Genome Project. He pursued postdoctoral studies in chemical biology and molecular evolution under the mentorship of Gerald Joyce at Scripps Research. He was the recipient of both a NIH National Research Service Award (F32) and a Pathway to Independence Award (K99/R00). In 2008, Paegel was appointed to the Scripps Research chemistry faculty and received the NIH Director’s New Innovator award and an NSF CAREER award in recognition of his contributions in reaction miniaturization. In 2019, Paegel rejoined the University of California System where he is Professor in the Departments of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chemistry, and Biomedical Engineering at Irvine. His laboratory develops chemical synthesis methodology for the preparation of solid-phase DNA-encoded libraries and engineers accompanying analytical instrumentation to conduct activity-based "off-DNA" library screens. Looking forward, Paegel is exploring droplet-compatible assay concepts that could render the entire proteome "druggable" and fulfill the long-standing vision of the Genome Project to translate DNA sequence into drugs.

• DNA-Encoded Libraries

Karan completed his graduate studies in Dan Kahne’s lab at Harvard. There, he studied the biogenesis of the bacterial outer membrane, and characterized inhibitors that kill by interfering with this process. He developed biochemical and structural methods to characterize the steps in lipopolysaccharide transport, and obtained structures of inhibitors bound to Lpt and Bam. His work has been published in Nature, and featured in The Guardian, Ars Technica, the LA Times, C&EN news, amongst other outlets. Currently, he works at GSK focusing on developing assays for hit qualification, understanding protein state, and DNA-encoded library screening methods.

• Emerging Technologies for Discovery Chemistry

Dr. Parang holds the position of Full Professor in Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacology at Chapman University School of Pharmacy situated in Irvine, California. Additionally, he maintains a dual role as a faculty member within the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the Schmid College of Science and Technology, also part of Chapman University. In a collaborative capacity, Dr. Parang contributes his expertise as an affiliate volunteer faculty member, specifically as a Project Scientist Step III, within the division of Nephrology and Hypertension in the Department of Medicine at the University of California, Irvine. Dr. Parang's academic journey includes earning his PhD in medicinal chemistry from the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Alberta in 1997. Following this, he embarked on a postdoctoral study focusing on solid-phase organic synthesis within the Department of Chemistry. He furthered his postdoctoral studies in bioorganic chemistry, undertaking research at Rockefeller University in New York and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. His research at the University of Rhode Island commenced in October 2000, where he subsequently ascended to the rank of full professor in July 2008. During his time there, he undertook the role of Program Coordinator for the Rhode Island IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (RI-INBRE) NIH program from 2012 to 2013. Dr. Parang's contributions to the academic community are evidenced by his authorship of 232 peer-reviewed publications, 23 patents or patent applications, and 198 meeting abstracts. His research pursuits converge at the dynamic crossroads of chemistry and biology, with a particular emphasis on medicinal chemistry, organic chemistry, nanomedicine, and drug delivery. His research activities encompass: 1. Devising Peptides as Agents against Bacterial and Fungal Infections 2. Leveraging Peptide Nanomaterials for the Advancement of Drug Delivery 3. Innovating Inhibitors for Protein Tyrosine Kinases 4. Pioneering the Development of Multifunctional Antiviral Agents

• Oral & Macrocyclic Peptides: Discovery to Development - Part 2

Janet Paulsen, PhD, is Senior Alliance Manager for Drug Discovery at NVIDIA, where she leads strategic partnerships that leverage AI and accelerated computing to advance pharmaceutical research and development. Previously, she served as Director of Applied Computational Chemistry at Recursion, where she built and led teams to develop innovative computational workflows and AI-driven solutions for drug discovery. Janet has also held scientific roles at Schrödinger, focusing on global health initiatives and advanced molecular modeling. Recognized for accelerating drug discovery through innovation and collaboration, Janet’s expertise encompasses physics-based simulations, virtual screening, and the integration of AI models. She earned her PhD in pharmaceutical sciences from the University of Connecticut and completed postdoctoral research at Harvard Medical School and the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Throughout her career, Janet has driven the adoption of cutting-edge computational approaches to enhance the efficiency and impact of drug discovery efforts.

• AI/Machine Learning for Early Drug Discovery - Part 1

Our laboratory focuses on the design, synthesis and evaluation of novel pharmacological tools in the areas of cancer, neurodegeneration, and potentially other disease areas, using innovative drug discovery approaches. The overall goal of the laboratory is to bring together basic sciences including modern nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) techniques, X-ray crystallography, computer modeling, traditional medicinal synthetic chemistry, and cell biology to elucidate the molecular basis of disease and to design novel pharmacological tools that serve for target validation and to develop novel therapeutic agents. A central theme of our laboratory is the development of novel methodologies to tackle protein-protein interactions (PPIs) as targets for drug discovery, and to further advance our most promising agents into potential therapeutics.

• Oral & Macrocyclic Peptides: Discovery to Development - Part 2

Matthew A. Perry, PhD is a Director of Chemistry at Halda Therapeutics, where he leads oncology-focused medicinal chemistry programs centered on the discovery and development of Regulated Induced Proximity Targeting Chimeras (RIPTACs). This novel therapeutic modality induces long-lived ternary complexes between disease-relevant target proteins and essential cellular proteins to selectively kill cancer cells. With over a decade of experience in small molecule drug discovery, Dr. Perry brings expertise across all stages of drug development. His work has contributed to multiple clinical candidates, including a boron-based PDE4 inhibitor, a salt-inducible kinase-targeted therapy, and a RIPTAC for the treatment of breast cancer.

• Degraders & Molecular Glues - Part 1

I currently head the early discovery group at Nurix Therapeutics, where we leverage our internal DEL collection to identify ligands to target proteins for degradation by harnessing E3 ligases and the Ubiquitin/Proteasome pathway. Prior to joining Nurix I worked at GSK, helping build their internal DEL platform, and leading the team screening the GSK DEL collection by affinity selection.

• DNA-Encoded Libraries

William C. K. Pomerantz received his BS in chemistry from Ithaca College in 2002, followed by a Fulbright Fellowship at ETH, Zurich with Professors François Diederich and Jack Dunitz. He obtained a PhD in chemistry under Professors Sam Gellman and Nick Abbott at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and was a postdoctoral fellow under Professor Anna Mapp at the University of Michigan. He joined the chemistry faculty at the University of Minnesota in 2012 and was granted tenure in 2018. He is currently a McKnight Presidential Fellow. His research focuses on the development of chemical biology and medicinal chemistry approaches for modulating protein-protein interactions. Protein-Observed Fluorine NMR (PrOF NMR) is one such tool in his lab that is being developed as a new method for fragment-based ligand discovery (FBLD) and has been applied towards inhibiting a diverse area of epigenetic protein complexes. Professor Pomerantz is currently the global council co-chair for the International Chemical Biology Society and Early Career Board Member for ACS Med. Chem. Lett.

• Covalent & Induced Proximity-Based Drugs

Dr. David Proia is the Senior Vice President of Biology and Drug Discovery at Acrivon Therapeutics in Watertown, Massachusetts, where he supports the clinical development of the CHK1/2 inhibitor ACR-368 (including its protein-based, predictive biomarker OncoSignature) and the discovery/development of ACR-2316, a dual WEE1/PKMYT1 inhibitor. Prior to Acrivon, Dr. Proia served as VP of Oncology at ROME Therapeutics, where he led the biology efforts for agents targeting an endogenous reverse transcriptase. He was also Senior Director of In Vivo Pharmacology at C4 Therapeutics, project lead for the IKZF1/3 degrader cemsidomide currently in Phase 1/2 studies for myeloma, and supported numerous other degrader programs. Earlier, as Director of Cancer Biology and In Vivo Pharmacology at Synta Pharmaceuticals, he supported the clinical development of the HSP90 inhibitor ganetespib and led the discovery and development of the HSP90 inhibitor/SN-38 drug conjugate STA-8666. His biopharmaceutical career commenced as a Scientist at AstraZeneca.Dr. Proia holds a B.S. in Biochemistry from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Baylor College of Medicine. He has mentored for many local and national science organizations (currently SMDP) and is on the Board of Directors for CoLAB, a non-profit organization that partners life science companies with high school students to build awareness for STEM careers.

• Emerging Technologies for Discovery Chemistry

Anna Marie Pyle is the Sterling Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and Professor of Chemistry at Yale University. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has been a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator since 1997. Dr. Pyle obtained her undergraduate degree in Chemistry from Princeton University and received her Ph.D. in Chemistry from Columbia University in 1990, working with Professor Jacqueline K. Barton. Dr. Pyle was a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Thomas Cech at the University of Colorado. Dr. Pyle formed her own research group in 1992 in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at Columbia University Medical Center. In 2002, she moved to Yale University, where she leads a research group specializing in structure and mechanistic function of large RNA molecules, RNA-protein complexes and RNA remodeling enzymes. Throughout her career, Dr. Pyle has studied molecular recognition by nucleic acids. She has conducted the foundational studies on small molecule interactions with RNA tertiary structures. Dr. Pyle is the founder of two companies (RIGImmune and RNAConnect) and has authored more than 250 papers.

• RNA-Modulating Small Molecule Drugs

John Quinn is currently a distinguished scientist specializing in biophysics within Biochemical and Cellular Pharmacology at Genentech supporting SMDD pipeline projects. He is particularly interested in the practical exploitation of kinetics for applications that are of value in preclinical SMDD. He received a PhD in Applied Immunology and Biochemistry from Dublin City University (DCU) and after a postdoc position developing biosensors at DCU, he joined Texas Instruments, Dallas, TX, working on the development of SPR devices. This technology was later licensed to Nomadics, Inc., and he joined them to head the development and commercialization of the SensiQ Pioneer as CSO. His interests in drug discovery led him to take a principal scientist position at Takeda California leading a biophysical group where his group supported both LM and SM projects.

• Emerging Technologies for Discovery Chemistry

Jarrett Remsberg first trained at the National Cancer Institute developing peptide-based inhibitors of membrane signaling pathways. He earned a BS in both Chemical-Biological Engineering and Biology from MIT and his PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine with Professor Mitch Lazar. Jarrett then joined the Cravatt Lab at Scripps Research for postdoctoral studies as an American Cancer Society Fellow. His research focused on applying chemoproteomic techniques to interrogate the ligandable proteome, including serine hydrolases involved in NRAS depalmitoylation and function-first strategies to assess the global impact of electrophilic compounds on protein complexes in human cells. Jarrett has since moved to industry as one of the first employees to join Belharra Therapeutics, establishing a novel photoaffinity-based chemoproteomic platform and continuing to advance mass spectrometry and chemoproteomic techniques to accelerate drug discovery.

• Chemical Biology for Covalent Drug Discovery, Phenotypic Screening, and Target Deconvolution

Dominic Reynolds, Ph.D., serves as the Chief Scientific Officer at Remix, where he spearheads the discovery and development of small molecules aimed at reprogramming RNA processing for therapeutic applications. With over 20 years of experience in the biotechnology sector, Dominic has a proven track record of building successful biotech companies and advancing innovative drug discovery programs. Dominic began his career at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, where he developed a strong foundation in medicinal chemistry and drug discovery. He joined Forma Therapeutics and then H3 Biomedicine as a founding member, assuming the role of VP, Head of Chemistry, at H3 Biomedicine, where he was critical in driving their drug discovery initiatives. As a drug discovery consultant for Third Rock Ventures and Atlas Venture, Dominic provided strategic guidance to seed-stage biotech companies, leveraging his extensive experience in oncology and neurodegeneration therapeutics. His leadership and scientific expertise have been pivotal in advancing multiple therapeutic candidates into clinical trials and developing sustainable drug discovery pipelines. Dominic earned his Ph.D. in synthetic chemistry from the University of Cambridge and completed postdoctoral training at Harvard University, focusing on natural product synthesis. At Remix, Dominic's vision and expertise drive the company's mission to develop novel RNA-targeted therapeutics. His leadership is characterized by confident communication, building high performing teams, and a commitment to delivering innovative science on aggressive timelines. Dominic is dedicated to further developing Remix’s unique and innovative approach to manipulating RNA and translating that science into meaningful treatments for patients.

• Degraders & Molecular Glues - Part 2

Jack is a co-founder and Vice President of Discovery Chemistry at Kimia Therapeutics, joining the company in April, 2023, bringing over 14 years of experience advancing a range of innovative platform chemistry technologies from ideation to application in drug discovery. At Kimia, Jack leads the development and implementation of novel nanoliter-scale chemistries for hit identification via Kimia’s core platform technology, ATLAS. Prior to Kimia, Jack held research leadership positions at Carmot Therapeutics and Genentech.

• Emerging Technologies for Discovery Chemistry

Dr. Susanta Samajdar is a medicinal chemist by training and has over 20 years of experience in Indian Biotech Industries. Dr. Samajdar has led multifunctional drug discovery teams producing many drug candidates across various target classes focused in oncology and inflammation therapeutic areas. Precision oncology and immuno-oncology remained two major area of interest for Dr. Samajdar over last few years. At present Dr. Samajdar is leading the drug discovery research at Aurigene Discovery Technologies Limited, Bangalore, INDIA as Senior Vice President and Head of Discovery.

• Targeting Transcription Factors & Regulators

John is a senior data scientist at Pfizer, based in Cambridge, MA. Being a part of the operational AI group, his work focuses on enhancing operational efficiency and quality across the spectrum of drug development. Prior to joining Pfizer, John earned his PhD in computational medical engineering and medical physics from MIT and Harvard. He is passionate about teaching and mentoring students.

• Generative AI & Predictive Modeling

The focus throughout my career has been centered on transcriptional regulation in cancer and cellular development with specific emphasis on chromatin biology, transcription factors, and epigenetics. Initially an immunologist by training, I received my Ph.D in Immunology in 2013 from Washington University in St. Louis (In the Lab of Dr. Wojciech Swat). My Postdoctoral training under Dr. Cigall Kadoch and Dr. Bill Hahn at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute focused on how oncogenic transcription factors hijack the BAF complex in disease. For the last 7+ years I have been working at Foghorn Therapeutics where we aim to target chromatin remodelers and transcription to create novel therapeutics in oncology.

• Covalent & Induced Proximity-Based Drugs

Matthieu holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris. After graduating in 1995, he completed a couple of post-docs in protein crystallography and computational chemistry at New York University Medical Center. After working in biotechs in San Diego and in France, he joined in 2007 the Structural Genomics Consortium in Toronto as head of research informatics. He holds an Associate Professor cross-appointment with the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at University of Toronto.

• AI/Machine Learning for Early Drug Discovery - Part 1

Jörg Scheuermann studied Chemistry at the University of Heidelberg (Germany) and at the ETH Zurich (Switzerland). He performed his Ph.D. studies at the ETH Zurich under the supervision of Prof. Dario Neri working on the identification of novel small binding molecules to markers of angiogenesis. In 2002, with the renaissance of the idea of DNA-encoded Chemical Libraries, together with Dario Neri he pioneered DNA-encoded Chemical Library (DEL) technology with the setup and development of Encoded Self-Assembling Chemical (ESAC) Libraries. He continued working with Dario Neri on innovating DEL technology, he co-authored >80 peer-reviewed publications on DEL (together with Dario Neri he holds the highest publication track record in the field) and he is co-inventor of 3 DEL-related patents. In 2018 he wrote his habilitation thesis on "DNA-Encoded Chemical Library Technology for Drug Discovery” and received his Venia legendi and teaches various classes at ETH Zurich in the fields of Drug Discovery and Gene Technology. Jörg currently is Principle Investigator at the ETH Zurich heading the group "DNA-encoded libraries/DEL technology) with 1 senior scientist, 2 postdoctoral fellows and 5 PhD students. Jörg is co-founder and organizer of the “International Symposium on DNA-Encoded Chemical Libraries”, a yearly alternating event between ETH Zurich/Switzerland, Boston/US and Shanghai/China. Jörg's main research interests lie in the innovation of DEL technology, e.g., the development of novel DEL architectures, selection methodologies and the tailored construction of DELs for difficult targets. Recently, he conceived and published a novel DEL technology ("PureDEL"), which allows for creating very large and diverse libraries of chemically synthesized macrocycles.

• Fragment-Based Drug Discovery

Woody Sherman is CEO, Psivant Therapeutics and a thought leader in molecular simulations and computer-aided drug design, with over 90 peer-reviewed publications covering novel methods and applications. As Chief Computational Scientist at Roivant, Woody oversaw the computational strategy, implementation, and deployment of computational methods. He received his B.S. in Physical Chemistry from the University of California at Santa Barbara where he studied nonlinear optical properties of organic polymers using computational quantum mechanics methods. He completed his Ph.D. at MIT working in Professor Bruce Tidor’s lab where he examined the role of electrostatics in protein-ligand binding and implemented a novel method for optimizing ligand binding specificity across a panel of targets. While in graduate school he worked at Biogen where he developed novel methods to enhance antibody affinity via electrostatic charge optimization, resulting in a publication and patent. As Global Head of Applications Science at Schrödinger, led research, product development, methods development, and the deployment of Python-based tools. He also worked closely with Pharma partners on research projects and collaborations. Woody has published on a broad range of topics, including induced-fit docking, ensemble docking, molecular dynamics, free energy simulations, protein design, small molecule optimization, cheminformatics, hybrid ligand/structure-based methods, charge optimization, pharmacophore modeling, and more.

• AI/Machine Learning for Early Drug Discovery - Part 1

Dr. Simanshu leads the RAS structural biology group of the NCI RAS Initiative program at Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research. His research efforts are focused on structural studies on KRAS in complex with various effectors and regulators and on targeting druggable pockets observed in these structures using structure-based drug discovery approaches.

• Targeting Protein-Protein Interactions

Parthiban Srinivasan, an experienced data scientist, earned his PhD from Indian Institute of Science, specializing in Computational Chemistry. After his PhD, he continued the research at NASA Ames Research Center (USA) and Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel). Then he worked at AstraZeneca in the area of Computer Aided Drug Design for Tuberculosis. Later, he headed informatics business units in Jubilant Biosys and then in GvkBio before he floated the company, Parthys Reverse Informatics and later an AI consultancy, Vingyani. Then he returned to academia as a Professor of Data Science at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhopal. Currently, Parthiban is a Professor and Director at the Center for AI in Medicine, Vinayaka Missions Research Foundation, AV Medical College and Hospital, Puducherry, India

• Next-Gen AI Toolkit for Drug Discovery: From LLMs to Multi-Agent Systems

Erland Stevens is formally trained as a synthetic organic chemist, with a PhD from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. He specialized in nitrogen heterocycle synthetic methodology. After completing his postdoctoral research at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA, he joined the chemistry faculty at Davidson College in Davidson, NC. In addition to teaching organic chemistry, he created an undergraduate medicinal chemistry course and later published a textbook, Medicinal Chemistry: The Modern Drug Discovery Process, with Pearson Education. He then created an online medicinal chemistry course, which has been continuously revised and publicly available for approximately 10 years. He subsequently worked with Novartis to create additional online materials that are used with employees for continuing education purposes. He maintains an interest in the computational prediction of pharmacokinetic parameters based on structural features of drug-like structures.

• Drug Exposure at the Target: The Role of ADME and Pharmacokinetics

I have a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and completed post-doctoral studies in the laboratory of Professor Neal Castagnoli at Virginia Tech. I have over 20 years pharmaceutical industry experience with over forty co-authored publications. I have spent most of my career at Pfizer in various roles within PDM (DMPK), supporting projects ranging from oncology to neuroscience and currently, Inflammation and Immunology (I&I). I am currently a Research Fellow, and my responsibilities include setting the DMPK research and project strategies within the I&I Research Unit. In addition, my team and I function as Project Representative within I&I while I also have responsibilities as a Research Project Lead for various Discovery programs. My interests include prediction of human ADME as well as exploring physicochemical properties and how they relate to ADME with a focus on absorption. PROTACs are of special interest given their unique beyond Rule-of-5 properties and the ADME challenges they present relative to classical small molecules.

• Protein Degraders: A Beyond Rule of Five Space and in vitro ADME Perspective

Chaohong Sun is a Sr. Research Fellow and Sr. Director in Discovery Research organization at Abbvie, where she leads an organization including protein sciences, different screening platforms, and structural biology to support Abbvie small molecule projects. She also heads up the lead discovery strategy team that is responsible to set and execute integrated lead generation strategies (including fragment-based approach, DEL and HTS) for Abbvie’s early portfolio targets. She received her Ph.D. from Dartmouth College in biophysical chemistry and then joined Abbott as a postdoctoral research fellow to study structures and functions of proteins involved in apoptosis pathway before becoming a staff scientist. She is coauthor of over 50 peer reviewed scientific publications and patents.

• Emerging Technologies for Discovery Chemistry

Alex has built his career around solving complex problems in biology with machine learning. He has over a decade of experience in computational biology and more than 30 publications spanning work at institutions including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. At RubrYc Therapeutics, Alex managed antibody discovery campaigns using machine learning to produce drug molecules with exquisite epitope-selectivity, helping drive the company’s acquisition by iBio in 2022. He now leads the development of iBio’s machine learning platform for epitope-steered antibody discovery.

• Generative AI & Predictive Modeling

Chris is a drug discovery scientist with over 18 years experience spanning big pharma, biotech and startups. Chris started his career in 2007 at GSK, initially as a medicinal chemist delivering clinical candidates for respiratory diseases, then later as a chemical biologist in the protein degradation group, helping to discover and develop the first PROTACs. In 2017 he moved to BenevolentAI, working as part of tech teams to design new AI products to improve decision making and accelerate drug discovery. During this time he oversaw the evaluation of new targets into the drug discovery portfolio and also led the Astrazeneca collaboration in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. In the summer of 2023, Chris joined Celeris Therapeutics to design PROTACs with AI. In November 2024, Chris founded Ternary Therapeutics with some of his ex-BenevolentAI colleagues, where he is currently CEO.

• AI/Machine Learning for Early Drug Discovery - Part 2

Momar Toure studied chemistry at ENSCM, France, where he earned his M.Sc. degree. He then moved on to complete his Ph.D. degree in Organic Chemistry in the research group of Drs. Jean-Luc Parrain and Olivier Chuzel at Aix Marseille University, France. Momar then went on to conduct postdoctoral work in the research group of Professor Craig Crews at Yale University, where he worked in the TPD field (PROTAC). After Yale, Momar began his professional career in the medicinal chemistry group at EMD Serono, Inc. (Merck KGaA), where he held various positions from Scientist to Principal Scientist. Momar is currently a Director of Medicinal Chemistry at MOMA Therapeutics.

• Targeting Protein-Protein Interactions

Currently, I am Executive Director at Structure Therapeutics, where I am leading a team and effort to leverage high-throughput affinity-based selection technologies to discover novel chemical matters for GPCR targets. Prior to Structure Therapeutics, I was Director of Discovery Technologies at Relay Therapeutics, where I led a group focused on advancing DNA Encoded Library screening to enable the discovery of novel chemical matter via Machine Learning. Prior to joining Relay, I worked at GlaxoSmithKline, where I spearheaded efforts to enable functional DEL screening, DEL screens for lead discovery programs, and the application of DEL for targeted delivery.

• DNA-Encoded Libraries

Alison H. Varghese has a B.A. in biology from Rutgers University, an M.S. in cellular and molecular biology from Northeastern University and a Certificate in Project Management from Boston University. After a decade in academia, Alison joined Pfizer as a protein biochemist. As Principal Scientist, she uses her protein chemistry and structural biology expertise to support structure-based medicine design efforts in delivering effective medicines to patients in need. Alison has co-authored over twenty-five peer-reviewed publications.

• Emerging Technologies for Discovery Chemistry

Marcel Verdonk received his PhD from Utrecht University in 1995. He then spent four and a half years at the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre (CCDC), where he was responsible for the development of a number of structure-based design tools. Since November 2000, Marcel has been at Astex Pharmaceuticals, where he heads up a group developing informatics and structure-based design software applications.

• AI/Machine Learning for Early Drug Discovery - Part 1

Fabien Vincent is a senior drug discovery scientist with experience as both an in vitro pharmacology group leader and a drug discovery project leader. He gained expertise in pharmacology at Pfizer (2010-2025) as a laboratory head in the Primary Pharmacology Group. There, his laboratory supported the small molecule portfolio of the Immunology & Inflammation research unit, helping deliver 15 clinical candidates with two becoming FDA approved drugs (Abrocitinib, Ritlecitinib). His remit spanned target identification & validation, designing and executing hit identification & validation strategies, structure-activity relationships (SAR) support, mechanistic studies and study reports for the FDA. His main research interests are centered on drugging tough-but-well-validated targets and improving the translation of preclinical research to patients using physiologically relevant assays and phenotypic screening.

• Emerging Technologies for Discovery Chemistry

Dr. Shaomeng Wang obtained his chemistry B.S. degree from Peking University in 1986 and his PhD in Chemistry from Case Western Reserve University in 1992 and did his postdoctoral training at NIH. Dr. Wang is currently the Warner-Lambert/Parke Davis Professor in Medicine in the University of Michigan Medical School and professor of medicine, pharmacology and medicinal chemistry. Dr. Wang is the Director of University of Michigan Center for Therapeutic Innovation. Dr. Wang has served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, American Chemical Society since 2012. Dr. Wang has co-founded 5 biotech companies to develop novel small-molecule drugs invented from his laboratory and has advanced 7 compounds into clinical development. Dr. Wang has published >300 peer-reviewed papers and is an inventor of 55 issued US patents and hundreds of international patents. Dr. Wang was elected as Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors in 2014, Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2019 and was inducted into the Fall of Fame of the Division of Medicinal Chemistry of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in 2020. Dr. Wang was the 2014 University of Michigan Distinguished Innovator and won the 2020 Division of Medicinal Chemistry Award of ACS.

• Degraders & Molecular Glues - Part 2

Dr. Wang received his B.S. degree in chemistry from Peking University and PhD in physical organic chemistry from the Ohio State University. As a postdoc at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he worked in the field of drug delivery and nanomedicine. His independent research centers on chemistry and serves biology, spanning from chemical biology tools and method development to rational design of therapeutics, including small molecule inhibitors, protein degraders, and antibody-drug conjugates. His scientific contribution has been recognized by multiple awards including the Distinguished Faculty Award from Chinese-American Chemistry & Chemical Biology Professors Association and Michael E. DeBakey, MD, Professorship in Pharmacology.

• AI/Machine Learning for Early Drug Discovery - Part 2

Charles Wartchow is a collaborative, multi-disciplinary scientist with expertise in protein biochemistry, organic chemistry, and analytical methods. His focus at Novartis is early-stage drug discovery, with an emphasis on hit-finding, hit validation and the characterization of ligands, glues and bifunctional molecules for targeted-protein degradation.

• Degraders & Molecular Glues - Part 1

No bio available.

• AI/Machine Learning for Early Drug Discovery - Part 1

Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Colorado State University under the late Professor Robert M. Williams. Brings over 25 years of drug discovery experience from roles at G.D. Searle/Monsanto and Amgen. Currently serving as Chief Scientific Officer at Shenzhen Sungening Ltd.

• Oral & Macrocyclic Peptides: Discovery to Development - Part 1

No bio available.

• Degraders & Molecular Glues - Part 1