Genentech: Mela Mulvihill | Director Biophysics - Sr Principal Scientist, Biochemical and Cellular Pharmacology

Scientists / Our Scientists

"What motivates me is tackling tough targets and I feel deep gratitude for the opportunity to work among such talented scientists and contribute to medicines that can improve the lives of patients."

Years at Genentech

Publications at Genentech

Therapeutic targets of interest have become more difficult to drug as we are challenged to drug the undruggable. Information-rich biophysical techniques can contribute critical data in our lead finding, characterization, and prioritization efforts for early stage small molecule drug discovery programs.

I began my career at Genentech in 2014 after receiving my PhD at UC San Diego focusing on protein biophysics and a postdoc at UC Berkeley using chemoproteomics to understand disease pathways. My group at Genentech is focused on identifying and characterizing small molecule modulators of therapeutic targets using biophysics

Featured Publication

Antibody Conjugation of a Chimeric BET Degrader Enables in Vivo Activity.

ChemMedChem (2020).

Pillow TH, Adhikari P, Blake RA, Chen J, Del Rosario G, Deshmukh G, Figueroa I, Gascoigne KE, Kamath AV, Kaufman S, Kleinheinz T, Kozak KR, Latifi B, Leipold DD, Sing Li C, Li R, Mulvihill MM, O'Donohue A, Rowntree RK, Sadowsky JD, Wai J, Wang X, Wu C, Xu Z, Yao H, Yu SF, Zhang D, Zang R, Zhang H, Zhou H, Zhu X, Dragovich PS.

View Abstract on PubMed

I work in the Biochemical and Cellular Pharmacology department where we specialize in developing robust, quantitative assays to support the discovery of medicines across all therapeutic areas. My group is focused on using biophysical methods including Surface Plasmon Resonance and Mass Spectrometry to facilitate the discovery and characterization of small molecule therapeutics.

I have a passion for developing lead finding strategies and my group contributes to our fragment-based lead discovery, covalent drug discovery, and degrader platforms. We also develop mechanistic assays to support in-depth characterization of targets and early leads to prioritize the highest quality chemical matter. We have risen to the challenge to meet the increase in target difficulty with an increase in assay sophistication.

Conformation-locking antibodies for the discovery and characterization of KRAS inhibitors

Nature Biotechnology, ISSN: 15461696 10870156

Christopher W. Davies; Angela Oh; Rana Mroue; Micah Steffek; John M. Bruning; Yang Xiao; Siyu Feng; Sangeeta Jayakar; Emily Chan; Vidhyalakshmi Arumugam; Sean Carlo Uribe; Jake Drummond; Alexandra Frommlet; Cheng Lu; Yvonne Franke; Mark Merchant; Koeppen; John Quinn; Sushant Malhotra; Steven Do; Lewis Gazzard; Hans E. Purkey; Joachim Rudolph; Melinda M. Mulvihill; James T. Koerber; Weiru Wang; Marie Evangelista

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Small-Molecule Lead-Finding Trends across the Roche and Genentech Research Organizations

Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, ISSN: 15204804 00222623

Peter Dragovich; Wolfgang Haap; Melinda M. Mulvihill; Jean-Marc Plancher; Antonia Stepan

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High-Throughput Kinetic Characterization of Irreversible Covalent Inhibitors of KRASG12C by Intact Protein MS and Targeted MRM

Analytical Chemistry, ISSN: 15206882 00032700

Ke Sherry Li; John Quinn; Matthew J. Saabye; Jesus F. Salcido Guerrero; Jim Nonomiya; Qihui Lian; Wilson Phung; Yevgeniy Izrayelit; Benjamin T. Walters; Amy Gustafson; Nicholas F. Endres; Beresini; Melinda M. Mulvihill

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Conformation-locking antibodies for the discovery and characterization of KRAS inhibitors

Nature Biotechnology, ISSN: 15461696 10870156

View on Scopus

Primary Amine Tethered Small Molecules Promote the Degradation of X-Linked Inhibitor of Apoptosis Protein

Journal of the American Chemical Society, ISSN: 15205126 00027863

Willem Den Besten; Kshitij Verma; Sayumi Yamazoe; Nicole Blaquiere; Wilson Phung; Anita Izrael-Tomasevic; Melinda M. Mulvihill; Elizabeth Helgason; Sumit Prakash; Tatiana Goncharov; Domagoj Vucic; Erin C. Dueber; Wayne J. Fairbrother; Ingrid E. Wertz; Kebing Yu; Steven T. Staben

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Native Mass Spectrometry for the Study of PROTAC GNE-987-Containing Ternary Complexes

ChemMedChem, ISSN: 18607187 18607179

Louise M. Sternicki; Jim Nonomiya; Miaomiao Liu; Melinda M. Mulvihill; Ronald J. Quinn

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Antibody-Mediated Delivery of Chimeric BRD4 Degraders. Part 2: Improvement of in Vitro Antiproliferation Activity and in Vivo Antitumor Efficacy

Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, ISSN: 15204804 00222623

Peter Dragovich; Thomas H. Pillow; Robert A. Blake; Jack D. Sadowsky; Emel Adaligil; Pragya Adhikari; Jinhua Chen; Nick Corr; Josefa Dela Cruz Chuh; Geoffrey Del Rosario; Aaron Fullerton; Steven J. Hartman; Fan Jiang; Susan Kaufman; Tracy L. Kleinheinz; Katherine R. Kozak; Liling Liu; Ying Lu; Melinda M. Mulvihill; Jeremy Murray; Aimee O'Donohue; Rebecca K. Rowntree; William S. Sawyer; Leanna Staben; John Wai; Jian Wang; Binqing Wei; Wentao Wei; Zijin Xu; Hui Yao; Shang-Fan Yu; Donglu Zhang; Hongyan Zhang; Shenhua Zhang; Yongxin Zhao; Hao Zhou; Xiaoyu Zhu

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Antibody-Mediated Delivery of Chimeric BRD4 Degraders. Part 1: Exploration of Antibody Linker, Payload Loading, and Payload Molecular Properties

Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, ISSN: 15204804 00222623

Peter Dragovich; Thomas H. Pillow; Robert A. Blake; Jack D. Sadowsky; Emel Adaligil; Pragya Adhikari; Sunil Bhakta; Nicole Blaquiere; Jinhua Chen; Josefa Dela Cruz Chuh; Karen Gascoigne; Steven J. Hartman; Mingtao He; Susan Kaufman; Tracy L. Kleinheinz; Katherine R. Kozak; Liang Liu; Liling Liu; Qi Liu; Ying Lu; Fanwei Meng; Melinda M. Mulvihill; Aimee O'Donohue; Rebecca K. Rowntree; Leanna Staben; Steven T. Staben; John Wai; Jian Wang; Binqing Wei; Catherine Wilson; Jianfeng Xin; Zijin Xu; Hui Yao; Donglu Zhang; Hongyan Zhang; Hao Zhou; Xiaoyu Zhu

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A Multifaceted Hit-Finding Approach Reveals Novel LC3 Family Ligands

Biochemistry, ISSN: 15204995 00062960

Micah Steffek; Elizabeth Helgason; Nataliya Popovych; Lionel Rouge; John M. Bruning; Ke Sherry Li; Burdick; Jianping Cai; Terry Crawford; Jing Xue; Willy Decurtins; Chunlin Fang; Felix Grubers; Michael J. Holliday; Allyson Langley; Ann Petersen; Alexander Lee Satz; Aimin Song; Daniel Stoffler; Quentin Strebel; Jeffrey Tom; Nicholas J. Skelton; Steven T. Staben; Moreno Wichert; Melinda M. Mulvihill; Erin C. Dueber

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Antibody Conjugation of a Chimeric BET Degrader Enables in vivo Activity

ChemMedChem, ISSN: 18607187 18607179

Thomas H. Pillow; Pragya Adhikari; Robert A. Blake; Jinhua Chen; Geoffrey Del Rosario; Gauri Deshmukh; Isabel Figueroa; Karen Gascoigne; Amrita Kamath; Susan Kaufman; Tracy L. Kleinheinz; Katherine R. Kozak; Brandon Latifi; Douglas Leipold; Chun Sing Li; Ruina Li; Melinda M. Mulvihill; Aimee O'Donohue; Rebecca K. Rowntree; Jack D. Sadowsky; John Wai; Xinxin Wang; Cong Wu; Zijin Xu; Hui Yao; Shang-Fan Yu; Donglu Zhang; Richard Zang; Hongyan Zhang; Hao Zhou; Xiaoyu Zhu; Peter Dragovich

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Unlocking latent kinetic information from label-free binding

Scientific Reports, ISSN: 20452322

John Quinn; Micah Steffek; John M. Bruning; Alexandra Frommlet; Melinda M. Mulvihill

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Quantitative Determination of Protein-Ligand Affinity by Size Exclusion Chromatography Directly Coupled to High-Resolution Native Mass Spectrometry

Analytical Chemistry, ISSN: 15206882 00032700

Chengfeng Ren; Aaron O. Bailey; Erica Vanderporten; Angela Oh; Wilson Phung; Melinda M. Mulvihill; Seth F. Harris; Yichin Liu; Guanghui Han; Wendy N. Sandoval

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Determination of Affinity and Residence Time of Potent Drug-Target Complexes by Label-free Biosensing

Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, ISSN: 15204804 00222623

John Quinn; Keith Pitts; Micah Steffek; Melinda M. Mulvihill

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Disruption of XIAP-RIP2 Association Blocks NOD2-Mediated Inflammatory Signaling

Molecular Cell, ISSN: 10974164 10972765

Tatiana Goncharov; Stefanie Hedayati; Melinda M. Mulvihill; Anita Izrael-Tomasevic; Zobel; Surinc Er Jeet; Anna V. Fedorova; Celine Eidenschenk; Jason Devoss; Kebing Yu; Andrey S. Shaw; Donald S. Kirkpatrick; Wayne J. Fairbrother; Deshayes; Domagoj Vucic

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University of California, San Diego, Ph.D. in Biochemistry – 2011
University of California, San Diego, M.S. in Biochemistry – 2008
Sonoma State University, B.S. in Chemistry – 2008

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Mela Mulvihill

Director Biophysics - Sr Principal Scientist, Biochemical and Cellular Pharmacology

Featured Publication

Antibody Conjugation of a Chimeric BET Degrader Enables in Vivo Activity.