Hi, welcome to my page!
I'm Sky - a medicinal chemist with ~20 years of wet lab experience working at the interface of chemistry and biology. Formally, my background is in chemical synthesis, but my work has always been project-based, so I learn what I need to as I drive the project forward. This strategy has provided me with a great deal of experience in drug design, pharmacology, disease biology, and computational chemistry. I currently study neurodegeneration and design drugs which modulate the activity of transcription factor drug targets in an effort to repair damaged CNS cells. Most recently, I led a small team of scientists on the preclinical development (early stages) of a CNS-targeting drug which is now in a Phase I clinical trial for major depressive disorder (MDD).
My greatest interest is in future regenerative medicines. We've reached a turning point in druggable space where we can move beyond alleviating symptoms and now attempt to address how damaged cells and tissues can be restored in a functional manner. Regenerative medicine entails, at least in part, the targeting of transcription factors - a nefariously complex, hard-to-target class of drug targets. I believe through the use of innovative chemistry, combined with advanced computational methods, we can begin to unlock the regenerative power of these 'undruggable' transcription factor targets.
I'm Sky - a medicinal chemist with ~20 years of wet lab experience working at the interface of chemistry and biology. Formally, my background is in chemical synthesis, but my work has always been project-based, so I learn what I need to as I drive the project forward. This strategy has provided me with a great deal of experience in drug design, pharmacology, disease biology, and computational chemistry. I currently study neurodegeneration and design drugs which modulate the activity of transcription factor drug targets in an effort to repair damaged CNS cells. Most recently, I led a small team of scientists on the preclinical development (early stages) of a CNS-targeting drug which is now in a Phase I clinical trial for major depressive disorder (MDD).
My greatest interest is in future regenerative medicines. We've reached a turning point in druggable space where we can move beyond alleviating symptoms and now attempt to address how damaged cells and tissues can be restored in a functional manner. Regenerative medicine entails, at least in part, the targeting of transcription factors - a nefariously complex, hard-to-target class of drug targets. I believe through the use of innovative chemistry, combined with advanced computational methods, we can begin to unlock the regenerative power of these 'undruggable' transcription factor targets.
Scientific Interests:
- Regenerative medicine
- CNS drug design
- Three-dimensional molecular shape in drug design
- The use of chemistry to affect targeted delivery of compounds to different biological compartments
- Transcription factor drug targets
- Innovative drug modalities
