William J. Zuercher

Bill Zuercher, PhD, is principal investigator, Target Validation at the SGC University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and research associate professor in the Division of Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry in the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. He is interested in using chemistry to elucidate biology, particularly through the design, synthesis, and utilisation of chemical probes. Bill continues to advocate for expanding open, pre-competitive discovery space as a means to strengthen the foundation, and ultimately the success of drug discovery. He attended Grinnell College (Grinnell, IA) and then earned a PhD in organic chemistry at the California Institute of Technology (Pasadena, CA) under the direction of Robert Grubbs. After post-doctoral study with Michael Crimmins at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Bill joined the Department of Medicinal Chemistry at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK, then GlaxoWellcome) in Research Triangle Park, NC. During his 15 years at GSK, Bill led multiple programs within the hit-to-candidate continuum.