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Biography
I am a Professor and Department Chair of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at UCSF and Executive Director of the Small Molecule Discovery Center (SMDC). The SMDC is dedicated to helping researchers identify and optimize high-quality compounds for chemical biology and drug discovery, focusing on novel targets and screening approaches. In the course of this work, we have developed many assays and molecular tools to study cancer and neurodegeneration. My lab’s research focuses on chemical and biological probes of protein-protein interaction networks and covalent inhibitors of ‘undruggable’ targets; projects are focused on age-related diseases such as chronic inflammation, cancer, and neurodegeneration. Highlighted in the manuscripts below, we have been active in VCP Disease research, developing unique chemical and antibody probes of protein conformation and VCP/adaptor interactions. We are also actively developing chemical probes and drug candidates for neurodegeneration and liver fibrosis, and molecular glues the stabilize protein-protein interactions involved in cancer, metabolic disease, and neurodegeneration.
I am active in the chemical biology and drug discovery community. Leadership roles include Board President of the Academic Drug Discovery Consortium (ADDC; 2017-2022), director of the Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS; 2018-2021), UCSF representative to the AI-in-drug-discovery partnership called the ATOM Research Alliance, core director in the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, screening core director for UCSF’s antiviral drug discovery grant (AVIDD), member of the SAB for translational science at the Cure VCP Foundation, and Adjunct Professor of the Buck Institute for Research in Aging. I sit on the advisory and editorial boards for seven journals and have given over 90 invited lectures in the past 5 years. Our lab contributes to the development of a diverse workforce. The lab is consistently 50% women, and includes scientists from diverse ethnicities, countries, and cultures (https://pharm.ucsf.edu/arkin/about/mission). Of the 17 postdoctoral fellows and 16 scientific staff who have left from the lab, all but one are pursuing careers in biomedical research.
Before moving to UCSF in 2007, I was an early employee at Sunesis Pharmaceuticals, where we developed inhibitors of protein-protein interactions, including lifitegrast (an FDA-approved, LFA1 antagonist). Our lab at UCSF has licensed several projects to incubators, biotech, and pharmaceutical companies. I am co-founder of Elgia Therapeutics and Ambagon Therapeutics. I serve on the scientific advisory boards for six additional biotech companies and serve on the board of directors for Ambagon.