Critical challenges and emerging paradigms in drug discovery.

Adrian Whitty received a BSc in chemistry from King’s College London and a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Illinois at Chicago. After postdoctoral work at Brandeis University with William P. Jencks he joined Biogen (now Biogen Idec) where he worked for 14 years. He joined the Boston University Chemistry Department in 2008. His research group studies protein–protein and protein–ligand recognition, with an emphasis on how binding energy from these intermolecular interactions can be utilized to achieve biological function or inhibition. This research is applied in two distinct areas: developing a quantitative, mechanistic understanding of the activation and signaling of growth factor receptors; and advancing our ability to discover drugs that inhibit protein–protein interactions.