| Description | Molecular Engineering and Sciences Seminar Series
From Curiosity to (Pre-)commercialization: Challenges in the Development of a Niemann-Pick Type C Therapeutic
Bio: Professor Thompson received Bachelor degrees in Chemistry and Biology from the University of Missouri-Columbia (1978) and a Ph.D. degree in Organic Chemistry from Colorado State University (1984) for his work with Louis S. Hegedus. After postdoctoral studies with James K. Hurst at the Oregon Graduate Institute (now Oregon Health & Sciences University) (1984-1987), he joined the Department of Chemical & Biological Sciences there as an Assistant Professor (1987-1994). He then moved to the Department of Chemistry at Purdue University where he has held the position of Professor since 2000 and a courtesy appointment in the Department of Biomedical Engineering since 2010. Prof. Thompson has served as Visiting Professor at the University of British Columbia (1992), University of Florida (2003), Japan Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (2005), Osaka University (2006), Technical University of Denmark (2012), and Chulalongkorn University (2013). He has been recognized as a University Faculty Scholar, a Top Ten Outstanding Teacher in the College of Science at Purdue, and the Head of the Organic Chemistry Division (2003-2010). Prof. Thompson is the Director of the Purdue Specialized NCI Experimental Therapeutics – Chemical Biology Consortium program and the Director of the Medicinal Chemistry Group in the Purdue University Center for Cancer Research. He has served as a member of the Editorial Advisory Boards of Langmuir (2000-2005) and Bioconjugate Chemistry (2004-2013), and an Alternate Counselor of the ACS Division of Colloid and Surface Science. He presently serves as an Associate Editor of WIRES: Nanomedicine & Nanobiotechnology (2005-present). Dr. Thompson has published over 140 papers and been awarded 9 patents in areas focused on the synthesis of bioresponsive self-assembling materials for gene and drug delivery, materials development for accelerated protein structure determination, analytics-guided microfluidic synthesis of bioactive small molecules, and membrane protein sensors for high-throughput screening. Abstract: The Thompson Lab has had a long-standing interest in the development of pH-, light-, and enzyme-activated materials for drug delivery. An accidental encounter led to a major detour from that effort and the impetus for our current focus on the development of a safe and effective agent for the treatment of the rare lysosomal disorder, Niemann-Pick Type C. This story and our related efforts in developing continuous synthesis methods for the production of active pharmaceutical ingredients and the use of drug leads for protein structure elucidation will be discussed. This weekly seminar brings together students, faculty and invited guests from various disciplines across campus to explore current trends in molecular engineering and nanotechnology. It is a forum for active interdisciplinary discussions. These talks are open to the public and attract a diverse audience of students and faculty. |
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