VUMC’s Fesik lands technology innovation award
The Society for Biomolecular Sciences has selected Stephen Fesik, Ph.D., professor of Biochemistry and Pharmacology, as the winner of the SBS 2010 Technology Innovation Award.
The award is given for the development of an outstanding novel technology that is predicted to have a significant impact on the field of biomolecular sciences.
Stephen Fesik, Ph.D.
Fesik joined Vanderbilt University Medical Center last year and is leading a group focused on cancer drug discovery. He is also a member of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, the Institute of Chemical Biology and the Center for Structural Biology.
“I feel honored and appreciate this recognition of my work on fragment-based approaches to lead discovery,” said Fesik. “With the introduction of fragment-based methods, we now have an approach for targeting proteins previously thought to be undruggable. Indeed, I am using fragment-based methods and structure-based design at Vanderbilt to discover inhibitors of very difficult targets that are highly validated with the goal of developing effective cancer therapies.”
Prior to Vanderbilt, Fesik was divisional vice president of cancer research at Abbott Laboratories, where he led a group responsible for discovering new drugs to treat cancer.
He also developed several new nuclear magnetic resonance-screening methods and determined the three- dimensional structures of several proteins and protein/ligand complexes.
Fesik will accept his award during the SBS 16th Annual Conference & Exhibition in Phoenix, April 11-15.