Building New Medicines

In high school, Dan Sutherlin took a vocational test that recommended two very different career paths: scientist or construction worker.

At least the scientist part made sense. Dan had been fascinated by nature shows like Wild Kingdom and The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau since he was a kid. He dreamed of a career filled with exploration and discovery, like a scuba diving scientist or globetrotting zoologist. He decided to attend Eckerd College, a small liberal arts school in St. Petersburg, Florida, with a strong marine biology program.

As he took different types of science classes, however, Dan discovered that his passion for science wasn't limited to the ocean. He was particularly drawn to organic chemistry.

“I liked the puzzle aspect, and all the different ways you can think of to put things together. And on top of that,” Dan says, “once an idea is sound you can get into the lab and actually build it.”

He decided to change his major from marine biology to chemistry. Reflecting back on that vocational test, he realized the results weren't random. Synthetic chemistry is kind of like construction, only on a molecular scale.

Molecular Explorer

After finishing his degree at Eckerd, Dan went to the University of California, Los Angeles for graduate school in organic chemistry. There he was exposed to a broader range of organic chemistry research and began to appreciate that there was a lot more to it than memorizing reactions. Intrigued by the possibilities, Dan decided to continue his training as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley under Peter Schultz, where he would have the opportunity to apply his interest in chemistry to the biological world by finding ways to evolve proteins in the lab.

A few years into Dan’s postdoc, his adviser left to join another institution, and Dan had to decide whether to join him or look for another job. He'd kept in touch with a former Berkeley colleague, Andrea Cochran, who had recently joined Genentech. He reached out to her, and was intrigued by the potential of an industry position where he would have the chance to use the expertise he had gained to build new molecules that could one day help people.

He joined Genentech in 1999 as a scientist in what was then the Bioorganic Chemistry Department.

Changing Times

At first, Dan worked as a scientist focused on combinatorial chemistry, a field that was generating a lot of excitement at the time for its ability to rapidly create hundreds of new compounds in parallel. When the field moved forward, however, so did his approach to small molecule discovery. He has continued to be inspired by new technologies and approaches to develop drugs for traditional and difficult therapeutic targets. Examples include technologies like machine learning to predict which small molecules will be most effective for a given target and new synthetic methodologies that can more quickly access complex molecules.

“The neat thing to see is how we’re able to tackle tougher and tougher targets because of advances in technology that were unavailable just ten years ago. We‘re using these advances to reach proteins that we previously thought were impossible to target.”

As Dan’s research techniques have expanded, so has his disease focus. He’s touched numerous therapeutic areas, including oncology, neuroscience, cardiovascular disease and immunology, and has been involved in the discovery and design of four investigational molecules.

Perhaps most exciting among these was a molecule that became the first approved medicine for an advanced form of skin cancer. He was recognized professionally for this work as a member of the Genentech team that received a 2017 Heroes of Chemistry award from the American Chemical Society.

But the bigger honor for Dan came when he received a personalized ‘thank you’ card signed by patients who benefited from the medicine and their families. He has it framed in his office to remind himself that applying his curiosity and creativity toward making medicines can make a real difference in people’s lives.

New Challenges

Over his 20-year tenure, Dan has worn many different hats, including scientist, project team leader and director. He now serves as senior vice president and head of small molecule discovery chemistry, directing up to 90 medicinal, computational and analytical chemists. While it has been an adjustment to move away from the lab bench, he has embraced the opportunities of his new position.

“There’s a difference between working on a team as a scientist and having more of a leadership role. I’ve had to learn how to be a mentor and support not only the projects in our group, but also my group members’ careers.”

Dan credits much of his growth as a mentor to his current boss, Wendy Young, who he considers a managerial role model. From her, he has learned how to think strategically about organizing and supporting his team to ensure they have the resources they need. And although his responsibilities have evolved, he still gets a thrill from using science to build something that's never existed before.

“There are continual opportunities to grow and learn, and new challenges to explore. Through all of this, our aspiration is always for our work to be transformative for patients.”



Dan Sutherlin is a Senior Vice President and Head of Small Molecule Discovery Chemistry at Genentech. Learn more about his work here.