Vice President, Drug Discovery, UTHealth Houston
Email: [email protected]
Zhiqiang An, PhD, serves as vice president of drug discovery at UTHealth Houston. In this role, he works in close collaboration with the Office of Technology Management to promote drug discovery and therapeutic innovation.
An, professor of molecular medicine and Robert A. Welch Distinguished University Chair in Chemistry, directs the Texas Therapeutics Institute, a trailblazer in the development of antibody-based biologicals to treat cancers, spinal cord injury, and Alzheimer’s disease, with multiple drug candidates currently in clinical trials. The institute has locations in The Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston and the Texas Medical Center Helix Park, a world-class life sciences campus.
In addition, An directs the Antibody Drug Discovery Lab, an academic drug discovery program at McGovern Medical School, and serves as a member of the faculty at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Houston Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.
More than $50 million in extramural funding, 200+ papers published in top-tier and other peer-reviewed journals, and 45 filed patents are all testaments to an extraordinary level of success and drive of An to improve health through novel pharmacological interventions.
During the last 10 years, more than 12 novel antibody drug leads discovered in his laboratory were licensed to eight biotechnology companies, and six have advanced to clinical trials for acute myeloid leukemia, breast cancer bone metastasis, solid tumor, spinal cord injury, COVID-19, and other diseases.
He is an elected fellow of Society for Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology, the American Academy of Microbiology, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the National Academy of Inventors. Dr. An received his PhD from the University of Kentucky and completed his postdoctoral training at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Prior to joining UTHealth Houston in 2009, An served as chief scientific officer at Epitomics, Inc. and was director of Biologics Research at Merck Research Laboratories.
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