Scientists / Our Scientists

Steve Staben

Senior Director and Senior Principal Scientist, Discovery Chemistry

Postdoc Mentor

"I’m driven by the impact applied organic chemistry can have on addressing broad therapeutic challenges"

Years at Genentech

Publications at Genentech

Awards & Honors

I joined the Discovery Chemistry (medicinal chemistry) group at Genentech in 2007 after completing my PhD in organic chemistry at UC Berkeley. My current role includes leading interdisciplinary teams directed toward the common goal of delivering novel therapeutics that can impact patient’s lives.

Postdoctoral Mentor

One of the great things about Genentech is a strong investment in basic scientific research that includes a postdoctoral program. Combine that with great infrastructure, support-teams and resources, and I think we are uniquely positioned to tackle challenging scientific questions. I really enjoy the opportunity to work together with my colleagues to answer basic scientific curiosities that we share.

Featured Publication

Discovery of 2-{3-[2-(1-Isopropyl-3-methyl-1H-1,2–4-triazol-5-yl)-5,6-dihydrobenzo[f]imidazo[1,2-d][1,4]oxazepin-9-yl]-1H-pyrazol-1-yl}-2-methylpropanamide (GDC-0032): A β-Sparing Phosphoinositide 3-Kinase Inhibitor with High Unbound Exposure and Robust in Vivo Antitumor Activity

J. Med. Chem. 2013; 56, 4597-4610

Ndubaku CO, Heffron TP, Staben ST, Baumgardner M, Blaquiere N, Bradley E, Bull R, Do S, Dotson J, Dudley D, Edgar KA, Friedman LS, Goldsmith R, Heald RA, Kolesnikov A, Lee L, Lewis C, Nannini M, Nonomiya J, Pang J, Price S, Prior WW, Salphati L, Sideris S, Wallin JJ, Wang L, Wei B, Sampath D, Olivero AG.

View Abstract on PubMed

As a medicinal chemist, I use my knowledge of physical properties, reactivity, molecular conformation and interaction energies to design inhibitors of a variety of therapeutic targets. My basic research interests include: new target validation, novel strategies for inhibitor design, and methodologies useful for rapid/divergent heterobiaryl synthesis.

Filling a nick in NIK: Extending the half-life of a NIK inhibitor through structure-based drug design

Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters, ISSN: 14643405 0960894X

James J. Crawford; Jianwen Feng; Hans D. Brightbill; Adam R. Johnson; Matthew Wright; Aleksandr Kolesnikov; Wendy Lee; Georgette M. Castanedo; Steven Do; Nicole Blaquiere; Steven T. Staben; Po-Chang Chiang; Peter W. Fan; Matthew Baumgardner; Susan C. Wong; Robert Godemann; Alice Grabbe; Catharina Wiegel; Swathi Sujatha-Bhaskar; Sarah G. Hymowitz; Nicholas P. D. Liau; Peter L. Hsu; Paul A. McEwan; Moulay Hicham Alaoui Ismaili; Matthew L. Landry

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Steve Staben

Senior Director and Senior Principal Scientist, Discovery Chemistry

Featured Publication

Discovery of 2-{3-[2-(1-Isopropyl-3-methyl-1H-1,2–4-triazol-5-yl)-5,6-dihydrobenzo[f]imidazo[1,2-d][1,4]oxazepin-9-yl]-1H-pyrazol-1-yl}-2-methylpropanamide (GDC-0032): A β-Sparing Phosphoinositide 3-Kinase Inhibitor with High Unbound Exposure and Robust in Vivo Antitumor Activity