The Life Sciences Institute (LSI) has named Jason Gestwicki as the new director of its Center for Chemical Genomics (CCG), a campuswide hub for high throughput screening of chemical libraries and associated technologies. Gestwicki, who also is associate professor in the Department of Pathology at the Medical School, is a pre-eminent researcher who uses a combination of chemical and biological approaches to understand the underlying causes of neurodegenerative diseases and cancer.
Gestwicki will take over the role of director from LSI faculty member David Sherman who led the CCG from the time of its inception in 2004. Sherman is stepping down in order to take on the role of associate dean for research and graduate education in the College of Pharmacy. His appointment and laboratory will continue in the LSI.
“Under David Sherman’s leadership over the last seven years the CCG has become a key resource for some of most exciting research on campus and I can’t imagine anyone better than Jason Gestwicki for building on that legacy. Jason is an outstanding scientist who is already leading the way in bridging the worlds of chemistry and biology. His passion for working at the boundaries of the disciplines coupled with his extensive experience with advanced technologies will ensure that the CCG continues to bring innovation to biomedical researchers across the campus and beyond,” says Alan Saltiel, LSI director.
The CCG is a state-of-the-art collaboratory that brings together researchers from different disciplines to harness the power of chemistry in an effort to better understand biology and to discover early-stage candidates for drugs. The core capability of the CCG is the high-throughput chemical screening center that is located on the third floor of the Life Sciences Institute. The CCG provides screening services and support to researchers across the U-M campus and to outside entities, including biotechnology companies and researchers at other universities.
Professor of Pharmacology Rick Neubig, who is continuing in his role as CCG co-director, was one of the earliest architects of the CCG. “We started the CCG to allow academic investigators to tackle difficult drug discovery problems that the pharmaceutical industry considered unproven, too hard, or even ‘undruggable.’ Although it has taken eight years, we have two exciting projects, in melanoma and depression, where hits found in CCG screens are moving forward toward proof-of-concept. Jason’s creativity and energy should push CCG innovation even faster.”
The CCG is a key part of campus-wide efforts to investigate the causes of disease and accelerate the development of new medicines. Users of the CCG have targeted a wide variety of the most devastating therapeutic areas, including cancer, metabolic disease, neurodegenerative disorders, bacterial and viral infections, and many others.
