Genentech: Ben Sellers | Principal Scientist (Cheminformatics), Discovery Chemistry & Computational Drug Discovery

Scientists / Our Scientists

"I am humbled every day by discoveries that increase our understanding of life and disease. I feel fortunate to work with others in developing these discoveries into medicines."

Years at Genentech

Publications at Genentech

Awards & Honors

I joined the Computational Drug Discovery group at Genentech in 2009. My role involves developing computational tools and modeling of potential drugs as part of therapeutic project teams. My background is also a mix of software engineering and science; I developed computer-aided design software for several years at Autodesk, Inc. before diving into protein modeling in the Jacobson lab at UCSF. Genentech is a fantastic, collaborative environment that values risk-taking and basic science.

Featured Publication

A Comparison of Quantum and Molecular Mechanical Methods to Estimate Strain Energy in Druglike Fragments.

J Chem Inf Model. 2017 Jun 26;57(6):1265-1275.

Sellers BD, James NC, Gobbi A.

View Abstract

I am primarily interested in the development and refinement of physics-based methods for predicting protein-ligand interactions. My work has included analysis of limitations in industry force fields relative to quantum calculations and development of methods for understanding pi-pi interactions. I have also combined fast, statistics-based methods with physics-based rescoring. Ongoing, I am interested in increasing industry use of molecular dynamics and free-energy calculations.

Discovery of Inhibitors of the Lipopolysaccharide Transporter MsbA: From a Screening Hit to Potent Wild-Type Gram-Negative Activity

Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, ISSN: 15204804 00222623

Vishal A. Verma; Lan Wang; Sharada Labadie; Jun Liang; Benjamin D. Sellers; Jian Wang; Liting Dong; Qiuyue Wang; Shuang Zhang; Zhongya Xu; Yexia Zhang; Yanan Niu; Xinxin Wang; John Wai; Michael F. T. Koehler; Huiyong Hu; Mary Kate Alexander; Mireille Nishiyama; Anh Miu; Yiming Xu; Jodie Pang; Anand K. Katakam; Mike Reichelt; Cary D. Austin; Hoangdung Ho; Jian Payandeh; Christopher M. Koth

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Ben Sellers

Principal Scientist (Cheminformatics), Discovery Chemistry & Computational Drug Discovery

Featured Publication

A Comparison of Quantum and Molecular Mechanical Methods to Estimate Strain Energy in Druglike Fragments.