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.
Wells CI, Al-Ali H, Andrews DM, Asquith CRM, Axtman AD, Dikic I, Ebner D, Ettmayer P, Fischer C, Frederiksen M, Futrell RE, Gray NS, Hatch SB, Knapp S, Lücking U, Michaelides M, Mills CE, Müller S, Owen D, Picado A, Saikatendu KS, Schröder M, Stolz A, Tellechea M, Turunen BJ, Vilar S, Wang J, Zuercher WJ, Willson TM, Drewry DH
Int J Mol Sci. 2021-1-8 . 22(2): .doi: 10.3390/ijms22020566
PMID: 33429995Picado A, Chaikuad A, Wells CI, Shrestha S, Zuercher WJ, Pickett JE, Kwarcinski FE, Sinha P, de Silva CS, Zutshi R, Liu S, Kannan N, Knapp S, Drewry DH, Willson TM
J Med Chem. 2020-11-20 . .doi: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.0c01174
PMID: 33215924O'Byrne SN, Eduful BJ, Willson TM, Drewry DH
Tetrahedron Lett. 2020-9-17 . 61(38): .doi: 10.1016/j.tetlet.2020.152353
PMID: 33012852Wells CI, Vasta JD, Corona CR, Wilkinson J, Zimprich CA, Ingold MR, Pickett JE, Drewry DH, Pugh KM, Schwinn MK, Hwang BB, Zegzouti H, Huber KVM, Cong M, Meisenheimer PL, Willson TM, Robers MB
Nat Commun. 2020-6-2 . 11(1):2743 .doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-16559-0
PMID: 32488087Wells C, Couñago RM, Limas JC, Almeida TL, Cook JG, Drewry DH, Elkins JM, Gileadi O, Kapadia NR, Lorente-Macias A, Pickett JE, Riemen A, Ruela-de-Sousa RR, Willson TM, Zhang C, Zuercher WJ, Zutshi R, Axtman AD
ACS Med Chem Lett. 2020-3-12 . 11(3):340-345 .doi: 10.1021/acsmedchemlett.9b00399
PMID: 32184967O'Byrne SN, Scott JW, Pilotte JR, Santiago ADS, Langendorf CG, Oakhill JS, Eduful BJ, Couñago RM, Wells CI, Zuercher WJ, Willson TM, Drewry DH
Molecules. 2020-1-13 . 25(2): .doi: 10.3390/molecules25020325
PMID: 31941153Asquith CRM, Bennett JM, Su L, Laitinen T, Elkins JM, Pickett JE, Wells CI, Li Z, Willson TM, Zuercher WJ
Molecules. 2019-11-6 . 24(22): .doi: 10.3390/molecules24224016
PMID: 31698822Zhang C, Creech KL, Zuercher WJ, Willson TM
Sci Rep. 2019-7-10 . 9(1):9982 .doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-46374-7
PMID: 31292477Drewry DH, Wells CI, Zuercher WJ, Willson TM
SLAS Discov. 2019-4-29 . 2472555219838210 .doi: 10.1177/2472555219838210
PMID: 31034310Asquith CRM, Berger BT, Wan J, Bennett JM, Capuzzi SJ, Crona DJ, Drewry D, East MP, Elkins JM, Fedorov O, Godoi PH, Hunter DM, Knapp S, Müller S, Torrice CD, Wells CI, Earp HS, Willson T, Zuercher W
J. Med. Chem.. 2019-2-15 . .doi: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.8b01213
PMID: 30768268