Klaus Urbahns is Head of Discovery and Development Technologies at EMD Serono. Based in Billerica MA, Klaus is working with his team to discover new small molecule drugs and protein therapeutics in the area of oncology and immunology. Klaus is a chemist by training and worked previously at Bayer and AstraZeneca.

Amanda E. Hargrove is an Associate Professor of Chemistry at Duke University. Prof. Hargrove earned her Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Texas at Austin followed by an NIH postdoctoral fellowship at Caltech. Prof. Hargrove’s laboratory at Duke focuses on developing small molecule probes to investigate the structure and function of RNA molecules relevant to human disease. The lab works to understand the fundamental drivers of selective small molecule:RNA recognition and to use this knowledge to functionally modulate viral and oncogenic RNA structures.

Dr Maria DUCA is head of Targeting of Nucleic Acids research group in the Institute of Chemistry of Nice (Université Côte d’Azur - CNRS). After undergraduate studies in Pharmacy and Medicinal Chemistry (Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Bologna, Italy), she obtained her PhD in Molecular Biochemistry under the supervision of Dr Paola B. Arimondo (National Natural History Museum, Paris, France) working on topoisomerase II inhibitors. A 2-year post-doctoral training in Sydney Hecht’s lab (Department of Chemistry, University of Virginia, USA) allowed her to pursue the study of nucleic acids working on targeted protein mutagenesis. After CNRS recruitment as a Research Scientist in 2008 and promotion to Director of Research in 2022, her research activities focus on the targeting of non-coding RNAs using synthetic small molecules toward innovative therapeutic approaches for anticancer, antiviral and antimicrobial applications. She has been awarded the Michel Delalande award from the Académie de Pharmacie as well as national and international grants including H2020 grants. She is Associate Editor for RSC Medicinal Chemistry journal, chair of the Chemical Biology Initiative of EFMC as well as vice-president of the French medicinal chemistry society.

• Vice President, Head of Chemistry, PTC Therapeutics
• 17 Years at PTC developing splicing modifiers as therapeutics (Evrysdi, PTC518)
• Postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University under the direction of Eric Jacobsen
• Doctoral studies in organic chemistry at the University of Wisconsin under the direction of Samuel Gellman

Deborah Mortensen, Ph.D., is a Scientific Director in Oncology Chemistry West, BMS San Diego. Since joining Celgene (now BMS) in 2000, Deb has worked on a variety of drug discovery programs, in Oncology, Fibrosis and Inflammation therapeutic areas. She has served as Project Team Leader on a number of programs and has contributed to multiple compounds that have advanced into clinical studies. Deb currently oversees a small group of chemists working on multiple programs in the protein degradation field, with efforts in both molecular glue and bifunctional degrader space. Dr. Mortensen holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Northwestern University and a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Illinois.

Christina M. Woo is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University, and an affiliate member of the Broad Institute. Christina’s research focuses on the design of chemical approaches to alter post-translational modifications and the signaling outcomes they produce in cells. She obtained a BA in Chemistry from Wellesley College (2008). She obtained her PhD in 2013 from Yale University under the guidance of Professor Seth Herzon as an NSF predoctoral fellow in the synthetic and chemical biology studies of diazofluorene antitumor antibiotics. In 2013, Christina joined the laboratory of Professor Carolyn Bertozzi at the University of California Berkeley as a Jane Coffins Child postdoctoral fellow and continued at Stanford University (2015) as a Burroughs Wellcome Fund postdoctoral fellow, where she developed a mass- independent chemical glycoproteomics platform for the identification of non-templated post-translational modifications. Christina joined the faculty at Harvard University in 2016. Her research has been recognized by the Amgen Young Investigator Award, David Gin Young Investigator Award, Camille-Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, Sloan Research Foundation, NSF CAREER, Bayer Early Excellence in Science Award, the NIH DP1 Avenir Award, and the Ono Pharma Foundation Breakthrough Science Award.

Chris is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Scripps Research. His lab’s research focuses on employing chemoproteomic platforms to develop useful small molecules to modulate complex biological processes and illuminate mechanisms of disease, such as cancer and immune conditions. Chris obtained his B.S. in Chemistry at Case Western University in 2007 and his Ph.D. in Chemistry at Yale University in 2013 under the guidance of Professor David Spiegel. He performed postdoctoral work as an American Cancer Society fellow at Scripps Research with Professor Ben Cravatt, and in 2018 he joined the faculty.

Alessio Ciulli studied chemistry in Florence, Italy, and obtained his PhD from the University of Cambridge, UK, in 2006. After postdoctoral research in Cambridge and a brief visit at Yale University in the USA, he returned to Cambridge in 2009 to start his independent laboratory. In 2013, he moved to the University of Dundee, UK, where he was promoted to full professor in 2016. He has received numerous awards, including most recently the Prous Institute – Overton and Meyer Award for New Technologies in Drug Discovery. He is the scientific founder of Amphista therapeutics, a targeted protein degradation company spin out of his laboratory, and the founder of the University of Dundee’s new Centre for Targeted Protein Degradation which he directs and opened in January 2023.

Dr. Crews is the John C. Malone Professor of MCDB and professor of Chemistry and Pharmacology at Yale University. He graduated from the U. Virginia with a B.A. in Chemistry and received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in Biochemistry. On the faculty at Yale since 1995, his laboratory has developed the use of small molecules to control intracellular protein levels. In 2003, he co-founded Proteolix, Inc., whose proteasome inhibitor, Kyprolis™ received FDA approval for the treatment of multiple myeloma. Dr. Crews’ lab is also credited with founding the field of ‘Targeted Protein Degradation’ drug development technology, i.e., PROTACs, which has the potential to target currently ‘undruggable’ disease causing proteins. Dr. Crews has launched the New Haven-based biotech ventures, Arvinas, Halda Therapeutics, and Siduma.

Christa Müller studied pharmacy at the University of Tübingen, Germany, and received her Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical/Medicinal Chemistry from the same university. After postdoctoral stays with John W. Daly in the Laboratory of Bioorganic Chemistry at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, USA (1989-1990 and 1992), she became Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at Würzburg University in Germany. Since 1998 she is full professor of Pharmaceutical & Medicinal Chemistry at Bonn University and a founder of the Pharma-Center Bonn and the Bonn International Graduate School of Drug Sciences (BIGS DrugS). Her scientific interests are focused on the medicinal chemistry, structural biology, and molecular pharmacology of purine-binding membrane proteins (purine receptors, ectonucleotidases), orphan G protein-coupled receptors and G proteins, and recently also on coronavirus therapeutics. Disease indications include neurodegenerative and inflammatory diseases, cancer, and infections. She has published more than 500 scientific papers and patents in the field of medicinal chemistry and pharmacology. Among a number of awards, she received the Nauta Pharmacochemistry Award for Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Biology by the European Federation of Medicinal Chemistry (EFMC) in 2018. Since 2021, she acts as Editor-in-Chief of ACS Pharmacology & Translational Science.

Chris de Graaf has over 21 years of experience as a computational chemist, of which over 16 years in GPCR drug discovery research. Following a PhD in computational medicinal chemistry and molecular toxicology at VU University Amsterdam, Chris did his postdoc at the University of Strasbourg and AstraZeneca on the development and application of novel GPCR structural modeling and virtual ligand screening techniques. Chris de Graaf then was appointed Assistant Professor in the Department Medicinal Chemistry at VU University Amsterdam to develop and apply computational medicinal chemistry and structural bio/cheminformatics methods to complement medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, biophysics, and structural biology driven GPCR drug discovery research programs. Since 2018 Chris de Graaf is Head of Computational Chemistry at Sosei Heptares, world leader in GPCR Structure-Based Drug Discovery, where he is leading the development and application of bio/cheminformatics and CADD approaches across the GPCRome to help Sosei Heptares advance a broad and deep pipeline of partnered and in-house drug candidates in multiple therapeutic areas. Chris de Graaf is the author of more than 140 scientific publications.

Giulia Bergonzini is an Associate Principal Scientist at Early CVRM Medicinal Chemistry R&D BioPharmaceuticals, AstraZeneca (Sweden) where she focuses on medicinal chemistry and synthetic organic chemistry with a special interest in visible-light photocatalysis and its application to medicinal chemistry projects. She is currently seconding to Discovery Sciences, where she took on a Director role leading the DNA-Encoded and Compound Collection Libraries team within Compound Synthesis and Management. Giulia obtained her BSc and MSc in chemistry from the University of Bologna (Italy) and her PhD in organic chemistry and catalysis at ICIQ-Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (Spain) in 2013 under the supervision of Prof. Paolo Melchiorre. She did a sabbatical at Boston University (USA) under the supervision of Prof. Corey Stephenson and carried out her postdoctoral research at Gothenburg University (Sweden) before joining GSK (UK) as a Process Development Chemist. In 2017 she started her career at AstraZeneca (Sweden) as a Senior Research Scientist. Current academic collaborations include Prof. Burkhard König (University of Regensburg) and Prof. Belén Martín-Matute (Stockholm University).1,2 [1] M. Schmalzbauer et al., Redox-neutral Photocatalytic C–H Carboxylation of Arenes and Styrenes with CO2. Chem 2020, 6, 2658-2672. 2 T. D. Svejstrup et al., Effects of Light Intensity and Reaction Temperature on Photoreactions in Commercial Photoreactors. ChemPhotoChem 2021, 5, 808-814.

Peng Wu is a Professor in the Department of Molecular Medicine. Dr. Wu received his Ph.D. from the Scripps Research Institute in 2005. From August 2005 to September 2008, Dr. Wu was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. The research in the Wu laboratory integrates synthetic chemistry with glycobiology to explore the cellular and molecular mechanisms that control immune responses toward cancer and human pathogens. His most recent recognitions include Horace S. Isbell Award (American Chemical Society), Glycobiology Significant Achievement Award, and Horizon Prize (the Royal Society of Chemistry, with the teams of Sharpless, Kelly, Moses, Lu, Wolan, Hammock and Zuilhof).

Laura Kiessling is an institute member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, a member of Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT, and the Novartis Professor of Chemistry at MIT. Prior to MIT, she was the Laurens Anderson Professor of Biochemistry and the Hilldale Professor of Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin, where she also directed the Keck Center for Chemical Genomics. She has received a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (1998) and a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship (2008). In 2018, Kiessling was the first woman to receive the Tetrahedron Award. Kiessling is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2003), a Member of the American Academy of Microbiology (2007), the American Philosophical Society (2017), the National Academy of Sciences (2007) and the National Academy of Medicine (2022).

Kiessling began her undergraduate studies at UW-Madison but transferred to MIT after spring break trip to Boston, because she saw so many women excelling in science there. She earned her BS in Chemistry from MIT where she carried out research into asymmetric organic transformations with Professor Bill Roush. She followed her interest in organic synthesis to Yale, where she worked in the group of Stuart Schreiber. Her graduate research laid the foundation for the group’s synthesis of the ene-diyne core natural product calicheamicin γ, a DNA-cleaving compound with anticancer activity. She postulated that the sugars of this natural product were critical for DNA recognition, a hypothesis that was later borne out in subsequent research by the Danishefsky and Kahne groups. Kiessling’s interest in DNA recognition led her to postdoctoral studies at Caltech with Peter Dervan. There she synthesized the first non-natural bases to recognize mixed DNA sequences via triple helix formation.

Kiessling’s graduate and postdoctoral studies sparked an interest in understanding the recognition mechanisms of glycans. Because individual protein-glycan interactions are weak (Kd 10-3 M), she sought to understand and leverage multivalency to explore these processes. She recognized that defined multivalent ligands could serve as mechanistic probes and leads. Her approach to generate such ligands was to use controlled living polymerizations, such as the ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP). Indeed, she was the first to use ROMP to synthesize bioactive polymers. She also pioneered the concept of “post-polymerization modification” to generate a series of polymers whose activities can be compared directly.

Kiessling used her access to synthetic ligands to show that low affinity, multivalent binding interactions can be remarkably specific. She also showed that multivalent ligands generated through this method could mimic mucins, and she generated the most potent ligands known for L-selectin, a protein involved in the inflammatory/immune response. These ligands functioned by recruiting an endogenous cell surface protease—an early demonstration that protease recruitment can downregulate a protein and the first example on the cell surface.

Kiessling studies of multivalent recognition led her to introduce the concept of using bifunctional ligand to recruit natural antibodies to cells for destruction of tumor cells. In addition, she has shown that viruslike particles can be adorned with glycans to deliver antigens to dendritic cells. The result is an anticancer (Th2) immune response. In summary, Kiessling’s interdisciplinary research has elucidated and exploited the mechanisms of cell surface recognition processes. She has pioneered the synthesis of multiple types of molecular arrays and used them to elucidate the principles underlying multivalent interactions. She leveraged these findings to achieve cell specific recognition, elicit and illuminate mechanisms underlying signal transduction. Her recent studies focus on understanding the role of multivalent lectins in cell recognition.

Benika Pinch is a Principal Scientist II at Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, where her research is focused on applying chemical biology to exploratory drug discovery projects. She received her B.A. in Biochemistry and M.S. in Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania in 2014, and her Ph.D. in Chemical Biology from Harvard University in 2019. At Harvard, she worked in Dr. Nathanael Gray's laboratory characterizing bifunctional kinase degraders and developing covalent chemical probes.

Woody Sherman is CEO at Psivant Therapeutics. Prior roles included Chief Computational Scientist at Roivant Sciences, Chief Scientific Officer at Silicon Therapeutics, and Global Head of Applications Science at Schrodinger. Woody received his B.S. in Physical Chemistry and B.A. in Creative Studies from the University of California at Santa Barbara where he studied nonlinear optical properties of organic polymers using computational quantum mechanics methods. He completed his Ph.D. at MIT working in Professor Bruce Tidor’s lab where he examined the role of electrostatics in protein-ligand binding and implemented a novel method for optimizing ligand binding specificity. As Global Head of Applications Science at Schrödinger, he led methods development, applications, the deployment of Python-based tools, and modeling services. He also worked closely with Pharma partners on research projects and collaborations. As CSO at Silicon Therapeutics, Woody was responsible for the development of computational methods and deployment in drug discovery projects. As Chief Computational Scientist at Roivant, Woody oversaw the development of the QUAISAR computational platform in addition to leading multiple drug discovery projects. Woody has published over 90 peer-reviewed papers on a broad range of topics.

Daniel A. Erlanson is Senior Vice President of Innovation and Discovery at Frontier Medicines. Before that, he co-founded and served as VP of Chemistry for Carmot Therapeutics. Dr. Erlanson received his BA in Chemistry at Carleton College and his PhD in Chemistry at Harvard University in the laboratory of Gregory L. Verdine. He was an NIH postdoctoral fellow with James A. Wells at Genentech. From there he joined Sunesis Pharmaceuticals at its inception and went on to develop fragment-based technologies and to lead medicinal chemistry programs. As well as co-editing two books on fragment-based drug discovery, Dr. Erlanson is editor of Practical Fragments (http://practicalfragments.blogspot.com/).