I began working as a chemist in the pharmaceutical industry in 1993 at Agouron Pharmaceuticals, a biotech company located in La Jolla (San Diego). During the next seven years at Agouron, I primarily worked on agents for the common cold (rhinovirus 3C protease inhibitors), first as intranasally delivered compounds and then as orally bioavailable agents. Two molecules from these efforts were advanced to human clinical trials. Over this time period, I also became increasingly interested in many other aspects of antiviral research. After the acquisition of Agouron by Warner-Lambert/Pfizer, I led the antiviral therapeutic area at Pfizer, La Jolla for the next five years. The teams working on the antiviral projects in La Jolla delivered eight development compounds during that time for the treatment of HIV, HCV, and respiratory diseases. Several of these compounds exhibited meaningful antiviral activity in patients and one is currently completing phase 2 studies in HCV.

In late 2005, I made the difficult decision to leave Pfizer and subsequently conducted both research and development work at Anadys Pharmaceuticals (another San Diego biotech). Over the next three years, the teams that I was part of identified an attractive non-nucleoside NS5B polymerase inhibitor and advanced it through a phase 1 POC study in HCV-infected patients. At that time, I left Anadys to pursue an opportunity to lead a newly-formed Chemistry Department at Roche Palo Alto which was focused on antiviral research. This chemistry group was unexpectedly moved to the Roche Nutley site less than one year after my arrival in Palo Alto. As a result of this change, I transferred to Genentech in early 2010 and have since been working in the immunology and oncology fields.

• My Focus

  I currently lead two small-molecule discovery projects which are both related to the field of cancer metabolism.

• Publications

  • Discovery of potent and efficacious urea-containing nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase (NAMPT) inhibitors with reduced CYP2C9 inhibition properties

    Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters, 2013, ISSN: 0960-894X

    Gunzner-Toste, Janet; Zhao, Guiling; Bauer, Paul; Baumeister, Timm; Buckmelter, Alexandre J; Caligiuri, Maureen; Clodfelter, Karl H; Fu, Bang; Han, Bingsong; Ho, Yen-Ching; Kley, Nikolai; Liang, Xiaorong; Liederer, Bianca M; Lin, Jian; Mukadam, Sophie; O'Brien, Thomas; Oh, Angela; Reynolds, Dominic J; Sharma, Geeta; Skelton, Nicholas; Smith, Chase C; Sodhi, Jasleen; Wang, Weiru; Wang, Zhongguo; Xiao, Yang; Yuen, Po-Wai; Zak, Mark; Zhang, Lei; Zheng, Xiaozhang; Bair, Kenneth W; Dragovich, Peter S

     View on PubMed

  • Structure-based discovery of C-2 substituted imidazo-pyrrolopyridine JAK1 inhibitors with improved selectivity over JAK2

    Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters, 2012, ISSN: 0960-894X

    Labadie, Sharada; Dragovich, Peter S; Barrett, Kathy; Blair, Wade S; Bergeron, Philippe; Chang, Christine; Deshmukh, Gauri; Eigenbrot, Charles; Ghilardi, Nico; Gibbons, Paul; Hurley, Christopher A; Johnson, Adam; Kenny, Jane R; Kohli, Pawan Bir; Kulagowski, Janusz J; Liimatta, Marya; Lupardus, Patrick J; Mendonca, Rohan; Murray, Jeremy M; Pulk, Rebecca; Shia, Steven; Steffek, Micah; Ubhayakar, Savita; Ultsch, Mark; van Abbema, Anne; Ward, Stuart; Zak, Mark

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  • Discovery and Optimization of C-2 Methyl Imidazopyrrolopyridines as Potent and Orally Bioavailable JAK1 Inhibitors with Selectivity over JAK2

    Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 2012, ISSN: 0022-2623

    Zak, Mark; Mendonca, Rohan; Balazs, Mercedesz; Barrett, Kathy; Bergeron, Philippe; Blair, Wade S; Chang, Christine; Deshmukh, Gauri; Devoss, Jason; Dragovich, Peter S; Eigenbrot, Charles; Ghilardi, Nico; Gibbons, Paul; Gradl, Stefan; Hamman, Chris; Hanan, Emily J; Harstad, Eric; Hewitt, Peter R; Hurley, Christopher A; Jin, Tian; Johnson, Adam; Johnson, Tony; Kenny, Jane R; Koehler, Michael F T; Bir Kohli, Pawan; Kulagowski, Janusz J; Labadie, Sharada; Liao, Jiangpeng; Liimatta, Marya; Lin, Zhonghua; Lupardus, Patrick J; Maxey, Robert J; Murray, Jeremy M; Pulk, Rebecca; Rodriguez, Madeleine; Savage, Scott; Shia, Steven; Steffek, Micah; Ubhayakar, Savita; Ultsch, Mark; van Abbema, Anne; Ward, Stuart I; Xiao, Ling; Xiao, Yisong

     View on PubMed

• Education
  • California Institute of Technology, Chemistry (Biology minor), Ph.D. – 1993
  • University of California, Berkeley, Chemistry, B.S. – 1988
• Awards & Honors
  • President's Award – 1993
  • ACS Division of Organic Chemistry Graduate Fellowship – 1988