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.
Yang X, Smith JL, Beck MT, Wilkinson JM, Michaud A, Vasta JD, Robers MB, Willson TM
Molecules. 2023-3-25 . 28(7): .doi: 10.3390/molecules28072950
PMID: 37049713Korshunova M, Huang N, Capuzzi S, Radchenko DS, Savych O, Moroz YS, Wells CI, Willson TM, Tropsha A, Isayev O
Commun Chem. 2022-10-18 . 5(1):129 .doi: 10.1038/s42004-022-00733-0
PMID: 36697952Sammeta VR, Norris JD, Artham S, Torrice CD, Byemerwa J, Joiner C, Fanning SW, McDonnell DP, Willson TM
ACS Med Chem Lett. 2022-7-14 . 13(7):1151-1158 .doi: 10.1021/acsmedchemlett.2c00180
PMID: 35859859Ackloo S, Al-Awar R, Amaro RE, Arrowsmith CH, Azevedo H, Batey RA, Bengio Y, Betz UAK, Bologa CG, Chodera JD, Cornell WD, Dunham I, Ecker GF, Edfeldt K, Edwards AM, Gilson MK, Gordijo CR, Hessler G, Hillisch A, Hogner A, Irwin JJ, Jansen JM, Kuhn D, Leach AR, Lee AA, Lessel U, Morgan MR, Moult J, Muegge I, Oprea TI, Perry BG, Riley P, Rousseaux SAL, Saikatendu KS, Santhakumar V, Schapira M, Scholten C, Todd MH, Vedadi M, Volkamer A, Willson TM
Nat Rev Chem. 2022-7-6 . 6(4):287-295 .doi: 10.1038/s41570-022-00363-z
PMID: 35783295Yang X, Dickmander RJ, Bayati A, Taft-Benz SA, Smith JL, Wells CI, Madden EA, Brown JW, Lenarcic EM, Yount BL, Chang E, Axtman AD, Baric RS, Heise MT, McPherson PS, Moorman NJ, Willson TM
ACS Chem Biol. 2022-6-19 . .doi: 10.1021/acschembio.2c00378
PMID: 35723434Potjewyd FM, Annor-Gyamfi JK, Aubé J, Chu S, Conlon IL, Frankowski KJ, Guduru SKR, Hardy BP, Hopkins MD, Kinoshita C, Kireev DB, Mason ER, Moerk CT, Nwogbo F, Pearce KH, Richardson TI, Rogers DA, Soni DM, Stashko M, Wang X, Wells C, Willson TM, Frye SV, Young JE, Axtman AD
Alzheimers Dement (N Y). 2022-4-28 . 8(1):e12246 .doi: 10.1002/trc2.12246
PMID: 35475262Potjewyd FM, Annor-Gyamfi JK, Aubé J, Chu S, Conlon IL, Frankowski KJ, Guduru SKR, Hardy BP, Hopkins MD, Kinoshita C, Kireev DB, Mason ER, Moerk CT, Nwogbo F, Pearce KH, Richardson TI, Rogers DA, Soni DM, Stashko M, Wang X, Wells C, Willson TM, Frye SV, Young JE, Axtman AD
Alzheimers Dement (N Y). 2022-4-19 . 8(1):e12253 .doi: 10.1002/trc2.12253
PMID: 35434254Müller S, Ackloo S, Al Chawaf A, Al-Lazikani B, Antolin A, Baell JB, Beck H, Beedie S, Betz UAK, Bezerra GA, Brennan PE, Brown D, Brown PJ, Bullock AN, Carter AJ, Chaikuad A, Chaineau M, Ciulli A, Collins I, Dreher J, Drewry D, Edfeldt K, Edwards AM, Egner U, Frye SV, Fuchs SM, Hall MD, Hartung IV, Hillisch A, Hitchcock SH, Homan E, Kannan N, Kiefer JR, Knapp S, Kostic M, Kubicek S, Leach AR, Lindemann S, Marsden BD, Matsui H, Meier JL, Merk D, Michel M, Morgan MR, Mueller-Fahrnow A, Owen DR, Perry BG, Rosenberg SH, Saikatendu KS, Schapira M, Scholten C, Sharma S, Simeonov A, Sundström M, Superti-Furga G, Todd MH, Tredup C, Vedadi M, von Delft F, Willson TM, Winter GE, Workman P, Arrowsmith CH
RSC Med Chem. 2022-1-27 . 13(1):13-21 .doi: 10.1039/d1md00228g
PMID: 35211674Eduful BJ, O'Byrne SN, Temme L, Asquith CRM, Liang Y, Picado A, Pilotte JR, Hossain MA, Wells CI, Zuercher WJ, Catta-Preta CMC, Zonzini Ramos P, Santiago AS, Couñago RM, Langendorf CG, Nay K, Oakhill JS, Pulliam TL, Lin C, Awad D, Willson TM, Frigo DE, Scott JW, Drewry DH
J Med Chem. 2021-7-15 . .doi: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.0c02274
PMID: 34264658Cichońska A, Ravikumar B, Allaway RJ, Wan F, Park S, Isayev O, Li S, Mason M, Lamb A, Tanoli Z, Jeon M, Kim S, Popova M, Capuzzi S, Zeng J, Dang K, Koytiger G, Kang J, Wells CI, Willson TM, Oprea TI, Schlessinger A, Drewry DH, Stolovitzky G, Wennerberg K, Guinney J, Aittokallio T
Nat Commun. 2021-6-3 . 12(1):3307 .doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-23165-1
PMID: 34083538