Wednesday, 31 March 11:00am – 12:00pm

This seminar will be delivered via Zoom – Please email chemistry.researchsupport@sydney.edu.au for zoom link and password.

Title: Drug Discovery at the Academia/Biotech interface

Speaker: Dr Mark Smith; Stanford University

Host: Professor Richard Payne

Abstract: Stanford ChEM-H is a hub of innovation where chemists, engineers, biologists and clinicians work together to understand life at a molecular level and apply that knowledge to improving human health. To enable the cross-pollination of scientific ideas, ChEM-H established Knowledge Centers in Medicinal Chemistry, Macromolecular Structure, Metabolomics and Screening to provide specialist equipment, expertise and training to members of the Stanford community. As Head of the Medicinal Chemistry Knowledge Center, Dr. Smith’s seminar will focus on the process of helping biologists and clinicians incorporate medicinal chemistry into their research endeavors. Specific examples will include the development of a broad spectrum antiviral as well as an innate immune modulator.

Bio: Dr. Mark Smith is the Head of Medicinal Chemistry at Stanford ChEM-H and the Medicinal Chemistry Lead for Stanford’s Innovative Medicines Accelerator (IMA). Mark is a co-founder of Riboscience LLC and Angarus Therapeutics as well as the Director of the Stanford ChEM-H Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Program. Previously, Dr. Smith was a Senior Scientist at Roche Pharmaceuticals research facilities in Palo Alto, CA and Nutley, NJ. He developed the HCV Polymerase inhibitor, Balapiravir, and then led Roche’s influenza endonuclease inhibitor project and nucleoside chemistry program.  Mark graduated with a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the laboratory of Prof. Richard Stoodley at the University of Manchester Institute for Science and Technology (UMIST), and did postdoctoral research with Prof. David Crich at the University of Illinois at Chicago.