Shaun Stauffer

Biography

Dr. Shaun Stauffer is an Assistant Professor in the Pharmacology and Chemistry Departments at Vanderbilt University and is associate director of medicinal chemistry within the Vanderbilt Institute for Chemical Biology (VICB) Synthesis Core. Dr. Stauffer received his Ph.D. in 1999 from the University of Illinois Urbana in the laboratory of Prof. John Katzenellenbogen working on combinatorial approaches towards SERMs for breast cancer therapy. Dr. Stauffer then pursued postdoctoral studies at Yale University with John Hartwig developing high-throughput experimentation and optimization platforms for cross-coupling reactions. From 2001-2008 he pursued his industrial career at Merck & Co. where he was involved in multiple CNS programs including targets for AD, sleep, and chronic pain. He was associated with four preclinical candidate nominations, the recipient of the Merck Research Laboratory (MRL) 2007 Special Achievement Award, and was a co-author/co-inventor on over 30 publications and 13 issued U.S. patents. In October 2008 Dr. Stauffer moved to Vanderbilt where he successfully led a discovery team in a four-year sponsored program with J&J focusing of allosteric modulators of the mGlu5 receptor for SZ and AD. At Vanderbilt Dr. Stauffer also led and developed probe molecules as part of the NIH Molecular Libraries project (MLPCN). Since arriving at Vanderbilt he has authored/co-authored 55 publications and has received 11 issued U.S. patents. He is currently leading an NIH sponsored project targeting fragment derived small molecule disruptors of the WDR5-MLL1 interaction within the laboratory of Dr. Stephen Fesik.

Research Interest

 Microbiogy