Wendy Young Explained

Wendy B. Young is an advisor at Google Ventures and a former senior vice president of small molecule drug discovery at Genentech.

Wendy B. Young, Ph.D.
Citizenship:USA
Nationality:American
Alma Mater:Princeton University
Doctoral Advisor:Edward C. Taylor

Education

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

Despite multiple employment offers on the East Coast of the United States, 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. 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 clinical trials for several autoimmune disorders.[9] In 2023, she became an advisor at Google Ventures.

Awards

References

  1. News: The Molecule Maker. Genentech. Genentech: Breakthrough science. One moment, one day, one person at a time.. 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. EN. 56. 19. 5696–5700. 10.1021/jo00019a044. 0022-3263.
  3. Web site: HeteroCycles. www.heterocycles.jp. en. 2018-10-27.
  4. News: Princeton chemist Edward C. Taylor, inventor of anti-cancer drug, dies at 94. Princeton University. 2018-10-27. en.
  5. News: Alimta Monograph for Professionals - Drugs.com. Drugs.com. 2018-10-27. en-US.
  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. en. 34. 16. 1723–1726. 10.1002/anie.199517231. 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. en. 280. 49. 41077–41089. 10.1074/jbc.M506766200. 0021-9258. 16199530. free.
  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. 10.1021/acsmedchemlett.7b00103. 1948-5875. 5467183. 28626519.
  9. News: 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. 2018-10-27. en.
  10. Web site: Earle B. Barnes Award for Leadership in Chemical Research Management Recipients . acs.org. en. 2024-03-02.
  11. Web site: DR. WENDY YOUNG (BA’88, MS’89) DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARD RECIPIENT . chemistry.wfu.edu . en. 2024-03-02.
  12. Web site: 2018 ACS Fellows. acs.org. en. 2024-03-02.
  13. Web site: Wendy Young, Genentech William S. Johnson Symposium. johnsonsymposium.stanford.edu. en. 2018-10-27.
  14. Web site: Genentech: Wendy Young Senior Vice President, Small Molecule Drug Discovery. www.gene.com. 2018-10-27.
  15. Web site: Executive Committee . www.acsmedchem.org. 2018-10-27.

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