Wendy B. Young is an advisor at Google Ventures and a former senior vice president of small molecule drug discovery at Genentech.
Wendy B. Young, Ph.D. | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | American |
| Citizenship | USA |
| Alma mater | Princeton University |
| Scientific career | |
| Doctoral advisor | Edward C. Taylor |
Education
editYoung received her B.S. and M.S. from Wake Forest University, working with Prof. Huw Davies.[1] She was co-author on an early application of Davies' rhodium(II) carbenoid insertion - Cope rearrangement chemistry, leading to the total synthesis of three small tropane natural products.[2] Young received her Ph.D. from Princeton in 1993, working with Edward C. Taylor on heterocycles[3] derived from natural pigments, one of which ultimately became pemetrexed[4] (Alimta),[5] an oncology treatment. In her postdoctoral fellowship with Samuel Danishefsky, Young was among one of a handful of groups in the mid-1990s to synthesize paclitaxel (Taxol),[6] a highly-oxygenated terpenoid natural product used to treat cancer.
Career
editDespite multiple employment offers on the East Coast of the United States,[1] Young chose to remain in the San Francisco Bay Area for her professional career. From 1995 to 2006, Young worked at Celera Genomics, studying inhibitor compounds of human plasma proteins[7] such as kallikrein and Factors VIIa and IXa. She was recruited to Genentech in 2006, and in 2018 was promoted to Senior Vice President of Small Molecule drug discovery.[1] One of her major research successes was development of a chemistry campaign against Bruton's tyrosine kinase, leading to molecules to potentially treat rheumatoid arthritis and B-cell lymphomas.[8] Her team developed fenebrutinib, currently in Phase II clinical trials for several autoimmune disorders.[9] In 2023, she became an advisor at Google Ventures.
Awards
edit- 2020 - ACS Earle B. Barnes Award in Chemical Management[10]
- 2020 - Wake Forest Distinguished Alumni Award[11]
- 2018 - ACS Fellow[12]
- 2018 - William S. Johnson Symposium, Stanford University[13]
- 2017 - Elected Chair of ACS Medicinal Chemistry Division[14][15]
- 2015 - "Most Influential Woman of 2015" - San Francisco Business Times
- 1995 - American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellowship
- 1993 - H.W. Dodds Top Thesis Award, Princeton University
References
edit- ^ a b c Genentech. "The Molecule Maker". Genentech: Breakthrough science. One moment, one day, one person at a time. Retrieved 2018-10-27.
- ^ Davies, Huw M. L.; Saikali, Elie; Young, Wendy B. (1991). "Synthesis of (.+-.)-ferruginine and (.+-.)-anhydroecgonine methyl-ester by a tandem cyclopropanation/Cope rearrangement". The Journal of Organic Chemistry. 56 (19): 5696–5700. doi:10.1021/jo00019a044. ISSN 0022-3263.
- ^ "HeteroCycles". www.heterocycles.jp. Retrieved 2018-10-27.
- ^ "Princeton chemist Edward C. Taylor, inventor of anti-cancer drug, dies at 94". Princeton University. Retrieved 2018-10-27.
- ^ "Alimta Monograph for Professionals - Drugs.com". Drugs.com. Retrieved 2018-10-27.
- ^ Masters, John J.; Link, J. T.; Snyder, Lawrence B.; Young, Wendy B.; Danishefsky, Samuel J. (1995-09-01). "A Total Synthesis of Taxol". Angewandte Chemie International Edition in English. 34 (16): 1723–1726. doi:10.1002/anie.199517231. ISSN 0570-0833.
- ^ Tang, Jie; Yu, Christine Luong; Williams, Steven R.; Springman, Eric; Jeffery, Douglas; Sprengeler, Paul A.; Estevez, Alberto; Sampang, Jun; Shrader, William (2005-12-09). "Expression, Crystallization, and Three-dimensional Structure of the Catalytic Domain of Human Plasma Kallikrein". Journal of Biological Chemistry. 280 (49): 41077–41089. doi:10.1074/jbc.M506766200. ISSN 0021-9258. PMID 16199530.
- ^ Wang, Xiaojing; Barbosa, James; Blomgren, Peter; Bremer, Meire C.; Chen, Jacob; Crawford, James J.; Deng, Wei; Dong, Liming; Eigenbrot, Charles (2017-05-03). "Discovery of Potent and Selective Tricyclic Inhibitors of Bruton's Tyrosine Kinase with Improved Druglike Properties". ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters. 8 (6): 608–613. doi:10.1021/acsmedchemlett.7b00103. ISSN 1948-5875. PMC 5467183. PMID 28626519.
- ^ "A Study to Evaluate the Long-term Safety and Efficacy of Fenebrutinib in Participants Previously Enrolled in a Fenebrutinib Chronic Spontaneous Urticaria (CSU) Study - Full Text View - ClinicalTrials.gov". Retrieved 2018-10-27.
- ^ "Earle B. Barnes Award for Leadership in Chemical Research Management Recipients". acs.org. Retrieved 2024-03-02.
- ^ "DR. WENDY YOUNG (BA'88, MS'89) DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARD RECIPIENT". chemistry.wfu.edu. Retrieved 2024-03-02.
- ^ "2018 ACS Fellows". acs.org. Retrieved 2024-03-02.
- ^ "Wendy Young, Genentech | William S. Johnson Symposium". johnsonsymposium.stanford.edu. Retrieved 2018-10-27.
- ^ "Genentech: Wendy Young | Senior Vice President, Small Molecule Drug Discovery". www.gene.com. Retrieved 2018-10-27.
- ^ "Executive Committee". www.acsmedchem.org. Retrieved 2018-10-27.