Andrea Cochran - Distinguished Scientist, Early Discovery Biochemistry, Drug Discovery

Andrea Cochran

Distinguished Scientist, Early Discovery Biochemistry, Drug Discovery

Postdoc Mentor
"My long-term goal is to understand as much as possible about protein structure and function from a chemical perspective but more importantly, to apply this perspective to challenging biological problems."
28
Years at Genentech
51
Publications at Genentech
2
Awards & Honors

I have been at Genentech since 1996. After training in chemical biology and in protein biophysics, I wanted to combine these fields. The Early Discovery Biochemistry department at Genentech is uniquely committed to investigating basic protein structure-function questions and, in particular, to understanding molecular recognition between proteins and between proteins and smaller molecules. We are especially interested in non-traditional therapeutic targets like protein-protein interactions. Projects in my lab involve diverse approaches to understanding proteins and protein complexes with the organizing theme of novel target or lead discovery in areas relevant to cancer. Our recent focus has been biochemistry of ubiquitin pathways and epigenetic regulation, in particular functional aspects of lysine acetylation.

Postdoctoral Mentor

I enjoy hosting postdocs and students in my lab. It is great to see people develop as researchers, and the enthusiasm they bring to the lab keeps our work fun. Many of the key projects in the lab come from ideas contributed by students and postdocs, and this basic research benefits our efforts to discover novel targets and drugs.

Featured Publication

Expansion of the ISWI chromatin remodeler family with new active complexes.

EMBO Rep. 2017 Oct;18(10):1697-1706.

Oppikofer M, Bai T, Gan Y, Haley B, Liu P, Sandoval W, Ciferri C, Cochran AG.