I am a professor and chair of the Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy at The Ohio State University College of Pharmacy. I serve as the co-director of the Drug Discovery Shared Resource and co-leader of the Translational Therapeutics Program at the OSUCCC – James. I also hold the John W. Wolfe Chair in Cancer Research.

My research focuses on early-stage drug discovery and the design, synthesis and evaluation of molecular probes of cancer biology. My lab’s interdisciplinary approach draws from the fields of medicinal chemistry, synthetic organic chemistry and chemical biology. We extensively use fluorescence-based methods, high-throughput/high-content screening approaches, confocal microscopy and flow cytometry to investigate the biological activity and potency of small molecules in living cells.

My laboratory also uses phenotypic drug discovery to identify anticancer agents and related compounds with novel mechanisms of action. In this approach, we screen small molecules against biological pathways linked to disease, discover compounds with unique activities and work to identify their biological targets. To optimize the biological activity of hit compounds, we use medicinal chemistry methods and subcellular targeting strategies to enhance potency and selectivity. Compounds identified in this way can be used to create new drug leads and provide tools for the discovery of protein targets that function in cancer-specific pathways.

We are currently working to discover small molecules that inhibit proteins that contribute to the immunosuppression observed in a wide range of solid and liquid human cancers. We are also investigating compounds with the potential to function synergistically with anticancer antibodies as an approach to reduce side effects and overcome drug resistance in the treatment of cancer. Additionally, my lab is designing small molecules to control cellular signal transduction pathways upregulated in cancer.

Pursuing research at the chemistry-biology interface, I have published over 80 peer-reviewed manuscripts, have been listed as an inventor on 10 issued and other pending patents, and have been involved in research projects funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, the American Cancer Society, the Department of Defense Breast Cancer and Prostate Cancer Research Programs, the Novartis Institutes of Biomedical Research, the American Chemical Society, the American Heart Association, the Komen Foundation for Breast Cancer Research and other foundations. My laboratory is funded by an R01 grant from the NCI, a predoctoral training grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Ohio State Comprehensive Cancer Center.