Jan Jiricek
Vista,USA
Summary
- Team-oriented Medicinal Chemist Manager with proven leadership and motivational skills successful in helping drug discovery teams achieve their milestones and transition criteria for their respective research projects and clinical candidate selection.
- Experienced medicinal chemist, disease portfolio manager, drug discovery expert & lecturer: screening to candidate selection, toxicological profiling up to GLP, hit selection, lead optimization, infectious diseases, CNS penetration optimization, optimizing ADMET, tissue penetration.
- Respectful and clear communicator focused on enhancing teamwork and collaboratively addressing challenges with logical approaches. Skilled in building relationships and enhancing employee satisfaction to drive work performance.
Overview
20
20
years of professional experience
Work History
Senior Director
Asymchem
04.2022 - Current
- Responsible for Asymchem's business development for West Coast in multiple modalities (API, HP-API, oligos, peptides, biologics, ADC) with variety of services (preclinical to commercialization, tailor made or one-stop shop)
- Leading group of business developers (5 colleagues), organizing sales targets and campaigns with team to grow markets and brand recognition
- Overseeing API, HP-API and oligonucleotide projects as subject matter expert, facilitating scale up, CMC and safety related topics for preclinical and clinical batches
Group Leader Kinetoplastid Drug Discovery
Novartis NIBR
06.2017 - 04.2022
- Managing disease portfolio (target ID to clinical assets), delivered 3 preclinical candidates
- Directing 4 teams working on Chagas Disease in various stages (hit evaluation, hit-to-lead, lead optimization, preclinical candidate selection)
- Overseeing collaborations with Cryo-EM team, HTS-teams, target ID teams within NIBR
- Leading project teams and guiding project team leaders to develop efficacious and safe chemotypes towards preclinical development
Group Leader Kinetoplastid Drug Discovery
Novartis NITD
07.2014 - 06.2017
- Delivered brain penetrant, preclinical candidate for HAT within 14 months from hit selection
- Lead 3 LO programs, 4 hit to lead programs for CNS penetrable infectious disease compounds
- Led interdisciplinary team including CRO chemistry, external collaborators biology, pharmacology, in vivo models and collaborated with preclinical development team
- Joint global preclinical development team as chemistry expert
Investigator Medicinal Chemistry
Novartis NITD
03.2010 - 07.2014
- Received full Wellcome Trust fund based on research proposal developed (5 years)
- Developed with NITD team drug discovery proposal for African Trypanosomiasis (HAT, African sleeping sickness): TPP, objective settings, timelines, decision criteria, flowchart, novel assays, POC plan, PK/PD model
- Lead Tuberculosis Drug Discovery portfolio (3 LO, 6 hit to lead, 3 novel targets identified), including 17 FTE in CRO
Research Investigator Medicinal Chemistry
Novartis NITD
01.2005 - 03.2010
- Supervised team of 17 chemists, including CRO, for cell based hit to lead campaigns in Tuberculosis Drug Discovery
- Responsible for early stage projects and scaffold transitions.
- Delivered 2 preclinical candidates for development - 1 candidate transfered to GATB for clinical development
Postdoctoral Fellow
GNF
04.2003 - 01.2005
- Prostasin (protease) team member: synthesized peptidomimetics and 400 member dipeptide library for protease profiling.
Education
Associate’s Certificate in Project Management - Project Management
ESI/ University of Washington
Washington2009
Ph.D. - Organic Chemistry
Technical University
Berlin Germany2003
Diploma - Chemistry
University of Hannover
Hannover Germany1999
Exchange Student - Chemistry And Bioorganic Chemistry
The Scripps Research Institute - Dr. Wong's Group
San Diego1997
Skills
- Inclusive leader
- Active listener
- Analytical thinker
- Creative medicinal chemist & experienced drug hunter
Accomplishments
- “Cyanotriazoles are selective topoisomerase II poisons that rapidly cure trypanosome infections”, Science 2023, Vol 380, Issue 6652, 1349-1356.
- “Discovery of Novel Quinoline-Based Proteasome Inhibitors for Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT)”, J. Med. Chem. 2022, 65, 11776-11787.
- “Discovery and Characterization of Clinical Candidate LXE408 as a Kinetoplastid-Selective Proteasome Inhibitor for the Treatment of Leishmaniases”, J. Med. Chem. 2020, 63, 10773−1078.
- “Lessons learned in TB drug discovery: an industrial chemist’s perspective” Future Med. Chem. 2014, 6 (12), 1377-1380.
- “Indolcarboxamide Is a Preclinical Candidate for Treating Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis” Science Transl. Med. 2013, Vol 5, 214.
- “Discovery of Q203, a potent clinical candidate for the treatment of tuberculosis” Nature Medicine 2013, Vol.19, No 9.
- “A chemical genetic screen in Mycobacterium tuberculosis identifies carbon-source-dependent growth inhibitors devoid of in vivo efficacy” Nature Comm., 2010, 1.
- “PA-824 Kills Nonreplicating Mycobacterium tuberculosis by Intracellular NO Release. “ Science (Washington, DC, United States), 2008, 322(5906), 1392-1395.
- “Enantioselective Synthesis of (-)-Gilbertin via a Cationic Cascade Cyclization”, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2004, 3534-3538.
- “Design, Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Aryl-substituted Sialyl Lewis X Mimetics Prepared Via Cross-metathesis of C-Fucopeptides”, Bioorg. Med. Chem. 1999, 773-788.
Languages
German
Native or Bilingual
English
Full Professional
French
Limited Working
Czech
Elementary
Timeline
Senior Director
Asymchem
04.2022 - Current
Group Leader Kinetoplastid Drug Discovery
Novartis NIBR
06.2017 - 04.2022
Group Leader Kinetoplastid Drug Discovery
Novartis NITD
07.2014 - 06.2017
Investigator Medicinal Chemistry
Novartis NITD
03.2010 - 07.2014
Research Investigator Medicinal Chemistry
Novartis NITD
01.2005 - 03.2010
Postdoctoral Fellow
GNF
04.2003 - 01.2005
Associate’s Certificate in Project Management - Project Management
ESI/ University of Washington
Ph.D. - Organic Chemistry
Technical University
Diploma - Chemistry
University of Hannover
Exchange Student - Chemistry And Bioorganic Chemistry
The Scripps Research Institute - Dr. Wong's Group
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