Wendy Young

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Wendy B. Young is a medicinal chemist and pharmaceutical executive currently employed at Genentech.

Wendy B. Young, Ph.D.
NationalityAmerican
CitizenshipUSA
Alma materPrinceton University
Scientific career
Doctoral advisorEdward C. Taylor

Education[edit]

Young received her B.S. and M.S. from Wake Forest University, working with Prof. Huw Davies.[1] She was co-author on an early application of Davies' rhodium(II) carbenoid insertion - Cope rearrangement chemistry, leading to the total synthesis of three small tropane natural products.[2] Young received her Ph.D. from Princeton in 1993, working with Edward C. Taylor on heterocycles[3] derived from natural pigments, one of which ultimately became pemetrexed[4] (Alimta),[5] an oncology treatment. In her postdoctoral fellowship with Samuel Danishefsky, Young was among one of a handful of groups in the mid-1990s to synthesize paclitaxel (Taxol),[6] a highly-oxygenated terpenoid natural product used to treat cancer.

Career[edit]

Despite multiple employment offers on the East Coast of the United States,[1] Young chose to remain in the San Francisco Bay Area for her professional career. From 1995 to 2006, Young worked at Celera Genomics, studying inhibitor compounds of human plasma proteins[7] such as kallikrein and Factors VIIa and IXa. She was recruited to Genentech in 2006, and in 2018 was promoted to Senior Vice President of Small Molecule drug discovery.[1] One of her major research successes was development of a chemistry campaign against Bruton's tyrosine kinase, leading to molecules to potentially treat rheumatoid arthritis and B-cell lymphomas.[8] Her team developed fenebrutinib, currently in Phase II trials for several autoimmune disorders.[9]

Awards[edit]

  • 2020 - ACS Earle B Barnes Award in Chemical Management[10]
  • 2020 - Wake Forest Distinguished Alumni Award[11]
  • 2018 - ACS Fellow[12]
  • 2018 - William S. Johnson Symposium, Stanford University[13]
  • 2017 - Elected Chair of ACS Medicinal Chemistry Division[14][15]
  • 2015 - "Most Influential Woman of 2015" - San Francisco Business Times
  • 1995 - American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellowship
  • 1993 - H.W. Dodds Top Thesis Award, Princeton University

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c Genentech. "The Molecule Maker". Genentech: Breakthrough science. One moment, one day, one person at a time. Retrieved 2018-10-27.
  2. ^ Davies, Huw M. L.; Saikali, Elie; Young, Wendy B. (1991). "Synthesis of (.+-.)-ferruginine and (.+-.)-anhydroecgonine methyl-ester by a tandem cyclopropanation/Cope rearrangement". The Journal of Organic Chemistry. 56 (19): 5696–5700. doi:10.1021/jo00019a044. ISSN 0022-3263.
  3. ^ "HeteroCycles". www.heterocycles.jp. Retrieved 2018-10-27.
  4. ^ "Princeton chemist Edward C. Taylor, inventor of anti-cancer drug, dies at 94". Princeton University. Retrieved 2018-10-27.
  5. ^ "Alimta Monograph for Professionals - Drugs.com". Drugs.com. Retrieved 2018-10-27.
  6. ^ Masters, John J.; Link, J. T.; Snyder, Lawrence B.; Young, Wendy B.; Danishefsky, Samuel J. (1995-09-01). "A Total Synthesis of Taxol". Angewandte Chemie International Edition in English. 34 (16): 1723–1726. doi:10.1002/anie.199517231. ISSN 0570-0833.
  7. ^ Tang, Jie; Yu, Christine Luong; Williams, Steven R.; Springman, Eric; Jeffery, Douglas; Sprengeler, Paul A.; Estevez, Alberto; Sampang, Jun; Shrader, William (2005-12-09). "Expression, Crystallization, and Three-dimensional Structure of the Catalytic Domain of Human Plasma Kallikrein". Journal of Biological Chemistry. 280 (49): 41077–41089. doi:10.1074/jbc.M506766200. ISSN 0021-9258. PMID 16199530.
  8. ^ Wang, Xiaojing; Barbosa, James; Blomgren, Peter; Bremer, Meire C.; Chen, Jacob; Crawford, James J.; Deng, Wei; Dong, Liming; Eigenbrot, Charles (2017-05-03). "Discovery of Potent and Selective Tricyclic Inhibitors of Bruton's Tyrosine Kinase with Improved Druglike Properties". ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters. 8 (6): 608–613. doi:10.1021/acsmedchemlett.7b00103. ISSN 1948-5875. PMC 5467183. PMID 28626519.
  9. ^ "A Study to Evaluate the Long-term Safety and Efficacy of Fenebrutinib in Participants Previously Enrolled in a Fenebrutinib Chronic Spontaneous Urticaria (CSU) Study - Full Text View - ClinicalTrials.gov". Retrieved 2018-10-27.
  10. ^ "Earle B. Barnes Award for Leadership in Chemical Research Management Recipients". acs.org. Retrieved 2024-03-02.
  11. ^ "DR. WENDY YOUNG (BA'88, MS'89) DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARD RECIPIENT". chemistry.wfu.edu. Retrieved 2024-03-02.
  12. ^ "2018 ACS Fellows". acs.org. Retrieved 2024-03-02.
  13. ^ "Wendy Young, Genentech | William S. Johnson Symposium". johnsonsymposium.stanford.edu. Retrieved 2018-10-27.
  14. ^ "Genentech: Wendy Young | Senior Vice President, Small Molecule Drug Discovery". www.gene.com. Retrieved 2018-10-27.
  15. ^ "Executive Committee". www.acsmedchem.org. Retrieved 2018-10-27.
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