Tim Willson is chief scientist of the SGC-UNC, an open-discovery network for protein kinases based at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. He has more than 25 years of experience in pharmaceutical research with a track record in discovery of first-in-class clinical candidates. Throughout his career, Willson has been an advocate for research on pioneer drug targets. He led the Glaxo program on orphan nuclear receptors that uncovered their role in regulation of human metabolism and was co-discoverer of obeticholic acid, a breakthrough medicine for liver diseases targeting FXR. Willson has been a long time supporter of precompetitive chemistry in early drug discovery and was a scientific founder of the SGC Epigenetic Chemical Probes project. He is widely recognized for scientific leadership in chemical biology and was named one of the world’s 400 most influential biomedical researchers. Outside of science, Willson enjoys the challenge of long course triathlons and has completed six Ironman 70.3 distance races.
Willson has been a long-time supporter of precompetitive chemistry as a mechanism to bring innovation to early drug discovery. His team has made potent and selective chemical probes for orphan nuclear receptors widely available in the scientific community. He was a scientific founder of the SGC Epigenetic Chemical Probes project that led to the release into the public domain of more than 30 chemical probes that specifically inhibit enzyme modifiers and protein readers of the histone tails.
Edfeldt K, Edwards AM, Engkvist O, Günther J, Hartley M, Hulcoop DG, Leach AR, Marsden BD, Menge A, Misquitta L, Müller S, Owen DR, Schütt KT, Skelton N, Steffen A, Tropsha A, Vernet E, Wang Y, Wellnitz J, Willson TM, Clevert DA, Haibe-Kains B, Schiavone LH, Schapira M
Nat Commun. 2024-7-5 . 15(1):5640 .doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-49777-x
PMID: 38965235Ong HW, Yang X, Smith JL, Dickmander RJ, Brown JW, Havener TM, Taft-Benz S, Howell S, Sanders MK, Capener JL, Couñago RM, Chang E, Krämer A, Moorman NJ, Heise M, Axtman AD, Drewry DH, Willson TM
J Med Chem. 2024-7-3 . .doi: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.4c00962
PMID: 38959455Ghoshal A, Magalhães ÁF, Asressu KH, Hossain MA, Todd MH, Willson TM
Pharmaceuticals (Basel). 2024-6-26 . 17(7): .doi: 10.3390/ph17070836
PMID: 39065687Wellnitz J, Martin HJ, Anwar Hossain M, Rath M, Fox C, Popov KI, Willson TM, Muratov EN, Tropsha A
J Chem Inf Model. 2024-5-20 . .doi: 10.1021/acs.jcim.4c00412
PMID: 38768560Asquith CRM, East MP, Laitinen T, Alamillo-Ferrer C, Hartikainen E, Wells CI, Axtman AD, Drewry DH, Tizzard GJ, Poso A, Willson TM, Johnson GL
Eur J Med Chem. 2024-4-2 . 271:116357 .doi: 10.1016/j.ejmech.2024.116357
PMID: 38636130Asressu KH, Smith JL, Dickmander RJ, Moorman NJ, Wellnitz J, Popov KI, Axtman AD, Willson TM
Pharmaceuticals (Basel). 2024-2-27 . 17(3): .doi: 10.3390/ph17030306
PMID: 38543092Galal KA, Krämer A, Strickland BG, Smith JL, Dickmander RJ, Moorman NJ, Willson TM
Bioorg Med Chem Lett. 2024-1-8 . 99:129617 .doi: 10.1016/j.bmcl.2024.129617
PMID: 38199328Yang X, Ong HW, Dickmander RJ, Smith JL, Brown JW, Tao W, Chang E, Moorman NJ, Axtman AD, Willson TM
ACS Omega. 2023-10-24 . 8(42):39546-39561 .doi: 10.1021/acsomega.3c05377
PMID: 37901516Bashore FM, Annor-Gyamfi J, Du Y, Katis V, Nwogbo F, Flax RG, Frye SV, Pearce KH, Fu H, Willson TM, Drewry DH, Axtman AD
J Med Chem. 2023-10-24 . .doi: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.3c01277
PMID: 37874947Nandakumar M, Ollodart A, Fleck N, Kapadia NR, Frando A, Boradia V, Smith JL, Chen J, Zuercher WJ, Willson TM, Grundner C
J Med Chem. 2023-10-23 . .doi: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.3c01273
PMID: 37871287