Dr. Eddy Arnold is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Rutgers University. The Arnold lab is focused on understanding molecular mechanisms of drug resistance and the application of structure-based drug design for the treatment of serious human diseases. In pursuit of these goals, the laboratory uses research tools from diverse fields, including X-ray crystallography, molecular biology, virology, protein biochemistry, and macromolecular engineering. Eddy’s team of very experienced and gifted coworkers is the driving force behind the continuing progress. Since its establishment at CABM in 1987, the laboratory has studied the structure and function of reverse transcriptase (RT), an essential component of the AIDS virus and the target of most widely used anti-AIDS drugs.
Team Category: Project Team
Frank von Delft is Professor for Structural Chemical Biology at University of Oxford, where he heads the Protein Crystallography group of the Centre for Medicines Discovery, and previously of the Structural Genomics Consortium. He is also Principal Beamline Scientist at Diamond Light Source, where he leads beamline I04-1 and the XChem facility for crystallographic fragment screening. His focus is to make Fragment discovery and progression accessible and routine for both academic and industrial users. Alongside his role in READDi AViDD Center, he is also a Project and Core Lead of the ASAP AViDD Center.
Frank received his undergraduate degree from the University of the Free State (Bloemfontein, South Africa), and gained his PhD in protein crystallography under Tom Blundell at Cambridge (UK). He has also worked as a postdoc in San Diego (academically at Scripps in the JCSG, industrially at Syrrx in its pre-Takeda days). He is a visiting professor at the Biochemistry Department of the University of Johannesburg.
Ken Pearce, Ph D is the director of the Center for Integrative Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery. Pearce’s primary expertise and interests are fundamentals of protein methods, biochemical and cell assay development, medium- and high-throughput screening, hit validation and mode-of-action, biophysical methods for characterizing protein-protein and small molecule-protein interactions, and structure-activity relationships for early drug discovery. He joined the center as director of lead discovery and characterization in mid-2015 after spending over 18 years at GlaxoSmithKline and legacy companies in the Molecular Discovery Research organization.
Pearce started his career in anti-infectives discovery at SmithKline Beecham where he studied the cell division protein ftsZ and other essential cell division proteins as potential anti-microbial drug targets. At GlaxoSmithKline, Pearce worked on and led numerous drug discovery efforts for a variety of target classes and therapeutic areas. The majority of his research at GlaxoSmithKline was focused on signal transduction and small molecule modulation of nuclear receptors. He led and contributed to numerous efforts in this area that led to novel drug candidates for cancer and menopausal symptoms (estrogen receptor alpha), metabolic disorders (estrogen-related receptor alpha) and asthma and inflammatory diseases (glucocorticoid receptor). One particular discovery effort included a comprehensive analysis of multiple nuclear receptors and modulating ligands by conformation-sensing peptides utilizing phage display and multiplexed fluorescent bead analysis. For the glucocorticoid receptor, which is one of the most studied and highly validated drug targets for immune-related diseases, these efforts led to the first reported crystal structure and characterization of several marketed products (fluticasone propionate and fluticasone furoate), as well as support for a nonsteroidal agonist program.
For the past several years, Pearce has initiated and led a multi-target program for drug discovery for the proprotein convertase family of enzymes.
John E. Scott is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Principal Investigator at the BRITE research institute at North Carolina Central University. His research interests are focused on triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) with regards to the discovery of novel targets, drugs, drug combinations and drug repurposing, with the goal of identifying new treatment options for this disease. He also has a general interest in academic drug/probe discovery. His role within the READDI-AViDD Center is to lead the assay validation and high throughput screening of compound collections at BRITE’s High Throughput Screening Core facility.
John earned a BS in Biochemistry from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign followed by a Ph.D. in Microbiology & Immunology from Duke University. As a graduate student at Duke University, his research focused on the mechanism of tumor cell recognition and lysis by NK cells. As a postdoctoral researcher at The Upjohn Company, he studied signal transduction requirements for T cell activation. John has over seven years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry in early phase drug discovery and developing assays for HTS. As a scientist at Helios Pharmaceuticals, he developed biochemical and cell-based assays, taking projects from gene to compound screening with a validated assay. At Eli Lilly & Co., his research focused on drug discovery by leading high throughput assay development and screening and providing scientific leadership for screening campaigns. He was an active member of Lilly’s kinase-focused drug discovery program and directed the development and validation of 17 kinase assays for a variety of kinase targets. After leaving Lilly, he was hired at NCCU as an Associate Professor and initiated his academic research.
Bob earned his B.S. in Chemistry from the California Institute of Technology and his Ph.D. in Microbiology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As a graduate student, Bob studied lysogen formation by the transposable bacteriophage Mu in the lab of National Academy of Science and Institute of Medicine member Maury Fox. Bob returned to Caltech for studies on bacterial chemotaxis in the lab of National Academy of Science member Mel Simon, where he was supported by an NIH postdoctoral fellowship. Bob is currently a Professor in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology at UNC Chapel Hill, where he has been a faculty member since 1992 and has served as Director of Graduate Studies since 2009. Bob was elected to Fellowship in the American Academy of Microbiology in 2020.
Research in the Bourret lab focuses on the molecular mechanisms of signal transduction by two-component regulatory systems, which are found in bacteria, archaea, fungi, and plants but not mammals and are therefore believed to be suitable targets for new anti-bacterial and anti-fungal compounds. Much of our research involves identifying and dissecting factors that control the kinetics of protein phosphorylation and dephosphorylation reactions. We exploit abundant protein sequence information to drive design of experiments that explore key characteristics of entire protein families rather than individual proteins. We also use our expertise in biochemistry and biophysics to collaborate with other research groups at UNC, including READDI-AC.
Bob is Chair of the Board of Directors of Bacterial Locomotion And Signal Transduction, Inc., a non-profit corporation that hosts an international scientific conference every two years.
Joseph Newman is a structural biologist working in the Centre for Medicines Discovery at the University of Oxford where he uses structural biology to identify and develop novel starting points for drug development against targets involved in DNA repair pathways. His role at READDI-AC is to provide structural and mechanistic insights, X-ray fragment screening data and structural support for medicinal chemistry optimisation of inhibitors targeting viral helicases.
Dr. Jennifer E. Golden is an Associate Professor in the Division of Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Department of Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She also serves as the Associate Director of the UW-Madison Medicinal Chemistry Center and is the Chair of the Early Career Board of ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters. She completed her Ph.D. in medicinal chemistry at the University of Kansas (Prof. J. Aube) and postdoctoral work at Stanford University (Prof. P. Wender). Dr. Golden is a co-investigator on the Alphavirus Team (Project 5) in READDI-AC, where she focuses on the design and synthesis of broad-spectrum alphavirus inhibitors. Her experience in this area includes, in coordination with virologists, the identification and development of small molecules that potently attenuate replication of encephalitic alphaviruses. Dr. Golden brings nearly 20 years of synthetic medicinal chemistry experience from a career spanning industry and academia. At UW-Madison, she has established robust, well-funded, multidisciplinary drug discovery teams and a research platform that integrates the design, synthesis, and optimization of novel anti-infective agents directed at the improving human health scenarios for which few or no therapeutic options exist. She maintains highly collaborative relationships with biology experts to pursue drug discovery efforts, including programs directed at alphavirus intervention and parasitic diseases, both of which require design of specialized compounds that penetrate and spare cells in the CNS while effectively targeting pathogens of interest.
Dr. Daniel Streblow received his B.S. in Pharmacology/Toxicology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1992. He graduated from University of Wisconsin-Madison with a Ph.D. in Viral Pathogenesis in 1997. Dr. Streblow received a NIH post-doctoral fellowship and worked with Dr. Jay A. Nelson in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at Oregon Health & Science University. He is currently an Associate Scientist at the Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute and Research Assistant Professor at the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology.
The focus of the Streblow laboratory is on defining the role of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) in the development of vascular disease and chronic rejection of organ allografts. The role of CMV in these diseases is still uncharacterized.
Alec Hirsch graduated from Swarthmore College with a B.A. in Biology in 1989 and received his Ph.D. in molecular Biology from Princeton University in 1999. He came to OHSU on a postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Jay Nelson as his advisor. He was hired as Assistant Scientist at OHSU Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute in 2010 and currently holds the rank of Associate Professor.
The Hirsch lab studies multiple facets of the interaction of flaviviruses with the infected host. Currently, our work focuses on flaviviruses including dengue viruses, West Nile and Zika, Powassan viruses. Because we are experienced with BSL3 level containment, we have also contributed to research on SARS-CoV2, and have recently explored novel strategies for delivery of anti-SARS-CoV2 monoclonal antibodies to infected individuals. We are interested in identifying and characterizing important cellular proteins/ pathways involved in flaviviruses infection and pathogenesis, as well as the interplay between the virus and cellular innate immunity. This work has also been extended to translational programs directed at the discovery of anti-flavivirus molecules, and novel vaccine strategies for these viruses.
Mark R. Denison, MD, is the Edward Claiborne Stahlman Professor of Pediatrics and Professor of Pathology, Microbiology & Immunology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. For over 30 years investigators in the Denison Lab have investigated coronavirus replication, pathogenesis, and evolution, including SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, and the current pandemic SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19). His team has identified multiple critical and unique viral proteins as novel targets for antivirals and virus attenuation, including the proteases, RNA polymerase, and the novel proofreading exonuclease. Since 2013 the Denison research team has focused on antiviral development, directing preclinical testing for coronavirus antivirals including remdesivir and molnupiravir. Ongoing studies in the Denison Lab are identifying new coronavirus targets for inhibition and new antivirals for use against SARS-CoV-2 and future pandemic coronaviruses. Dr. Denison is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Microbiology, and the Association of American Physicians. His greatest awards are the accomplishments of his students, postdoctoral fellows, and other investigators in his lab.