Adrian Whitty joins faculty as Associate Professor in biochemistry
Prof. Whitty received his undergraduate degree (B.Sc., Hon.) in Chemistry at King’s College, University of London in 1985, and his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1991 working with Professor Paul Young. Following postdoctoral research with Professor William P. Jencks at Brandeis University in the field of Enzymology, Adrian joined Biogen Inc. (now Biogen Idec) in Cambridge, MA as staff scientist, where over 14 years he rose to the position of Director in the Drug Discovery Department and Head of Physical Biochemistry. In these roles he led a large group of research scientists employing structural biology, biochemistry, biophysics and computational approaches to investigate the mechanisms of action of potential drug targets and drug candidates, including both ‘biopharmaceutical’ (i.e. protein) and ‘small molecule’ (i.e. synthetic organic) drug discovery projects. Adrian additionally led or co-led project teams aimed at discovering drugs against specific drug targets. In his time at Biogen Idec Adrian was a highly productive research scientist with an excellent record of scientific publications. At the same time he engaged in impressive and focused mentoring of post-doctoral scholars. For several years he served as Director of the Biogen Idec Postdoctoral Program, and was cited by Science as one of the top postdoctoral mentors in the country (“Success factors for Postdocs,” September 17, 2004).