Drug Discovery Blogs and Influencers
Reading the thoughts of industry leaders is one of the best ways to grow as a drug discovery professional. This table contains a list of some of the best drug discovery blogs and biopharma social media influencers. They're all clearly passionate about what they do and great free resources.
| Name | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| practicalfragments.com | Blog | Practical Fragments is a useful site edited by Dan Erlanson and Teddy Zartler on important literature in the fragment-based design space. |
| In the Pipeline | Blog | Derek Lowe is a drug discovery scientist who's worked at several pharma companies over the decades, and shares a lot of great scientific highlights as well as insightful commentary on the industry. |
| LifeSciVC | Blog | Bruce Booth is a scientist and investor at Atlas Venture, which has a significant focus on backing drug discovery companies. He has great insights and portfolio company execs often contribute interesting entries. |
| DrugBaron | Blog | David Grainger is a scientist and co-founder of Medicxi, a life-sciences focused VC firm, as well as RxCelerate, a drug discovery CRO. He discusses broad and high-level considerations for creating value-adding drugs. |
| SugarCone Biotech | Blog | Paul Rennert is a scientist and biotech exec who often shares insightful technical commentary on important areas in drug discovery. |
| Biotech Due Diligence | Personal Site | Andrew Goodwin is an FDA pharmacologist who started his site as a way to share his notes from investing in biotech companies. He shares numerous useful notes and resources throughout. |
| Chris De Savi | Chris De Savi is a drug discovery executive who's worked for many years at Kymera Therapeutics and AstraZeneca. He frequently shares his thoughts on industry developments and helpful infographics on LinkedIn. | |
| Sara Nayeem | Sara Nayeem is a Partner at Avoro Ventures investing in biopharma (previously NEA). She frequently posts advice for life science leaders with respect to biotech business strategy. | |
| Keith Hornberger | Keith Hornberger is a senior director of medicinal chemistry at Arvinas, and frequently posts educational twitter threads on drug discovery concepts. | |
| Ingo Hartung | Ingo Hartung is a drug discovery leader at Merck KGaA, and frequently shares updates from the literature and conferences. |
More background on each appears below in no particular order.
About Bruce Booth - LifeSciVC
Bruce Booth is a scientist and investor at Atlas Venture, which has a significant focus on backing drug discovery companies. He has great insights and portfolio company execs often contribute interesting entries.
Since joining Atlas in 2005, he has been involved in the founding and funding a number of innovative companies, with a particular focus on capital efficient models for drug R&D. He is co-founder/founding investor and board chair of AvroBio (NASDAQ:AVRO), Arkuda Therapeutics, Kymera Therapeutics, Hotspot Therapeutics, Nimbus Therapeutics, Quench Bio, Rodin Therapeutics, and Unum Therapeutics (NASDAQ:UMRX). He also serves on the boards of Lysosomal Therapeutics, and Magenta Therapeutics (NASDAQ:MGTA). Previously, he served on the boards of past Atlas companies Avila Therapeutics (acquired by Celgene), miRagen Therapeutics (NASDAQ:MGEN), Padlock Therapeutics (acquired by BMS), Stromedix (acquired by Biogen), Prestwick (acquired by Biovail), and Proprius (acquired by Cypress Biosciences), among others.
About Dan Erlanson - Practical Fragments
Practical Fragments is a useful site edited by Dan Erlanson and Teddy Zartler on important literature in the fragment-based design space.
Dan Erlanson, PhD, is Vice President of Chemistry at Frontier Medicines. Prior to Frontier, Dan co-founded Carmot Therapeutics, where he developed drug discovery technologies and led chemistry efforts that resulted in an approved drug and two clinical-stage molecules as well as partnerships with biotech companies including Amgen and Genentech.
Dan also spent a decade developing drug discovery technologies and leading various medicinal chemistry efforts in oncology, metabolic, and inflammatory diseases at Sunesis Pharmaceuticals, which he joined at the company’s inception. Dan was Drug Hunter's nominee (and a finalist for!) for the 2021 Pantheon Award for Scientific Advancement.
About Derek Lowe - In The Pipeline
Derek Lowe is a drug discovery chemist who's worked at several pharma companies over the decades, and shares a lot of great scientific highlights as well as insightful commentary on the industry.
Derek is a Director at Novartis, focusing on early drug research and development. Before that, he had worked for a decade at Vertex, and nearly a decade each at Bayer and Schering-Plough. Derek was one of the first widely known science bloggers and is one of the best writers online, known for his colorful commentary.
About David Grainger - Drug Baron, Twitter
David Grainger is a scientist and co-founder of Medicxi, a life-sciences focused VC firm, as well as RxCelerate, a drug discovery CRO. He discusses broad and high-level considerations for creating value-adding drugs.
David is a co-founder and Venture Advisor at Medicxi. He is the Chief Innovation Officer at Centessa and is co-founder of The Foundation Institute for 21st Century Medicine.
David also led Medicxi's investment in Padlock Therapeutics (acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb), co-founded XO1 (acquired by Janssen Pharmaceuticals) and was Chairman at Z-Factor and Morphogen-IX (Centessa companies). Prior to Medicxi, David was a Venture Partner with Index Ventures for four years, having joined the life sciences team in 2012. Before that, he had a career as a leading academic at the University of Cambridge.
About Paul Rennert - SugarCone Biotech
Paul Rennert is a scientist and biotech exec who often shares insightful technical commentary on important areas in drug discovery.
Paul's recent accomplishments include working intensively with CoStim Pharmaceuticals' executive team to prioritize and launch that company's Cancer Immunotherapeutics portfolio. He has also worked with X-Chem Inc to create X-Rx Discovery, an asset-centric biotechnology company. As CSO, he built that company from conception to full portfolio execution, including medicinal chemistry, assay development, ADME/DMPK support, efficacy and toxicity assessment. He drove two lead programs, targeting autotaxin and BTK, from hit through lead optimization, and selected lead candidates for IND enablement. Highlights from that work has been featured in the past within Molecules of the Month.
About Andrew Goodwin - Biotech Due Diligence
Andrew Goodwin is an FDA pharmacologist who started his site as a way to share his notes from investing in biotech companies. He shares numerous useful notes and resources throughout.
After ten years of academic biomedical research, including a postdoctoral fellowship and faculty appointment at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Andrew now serves as a Supervisory Pharmacologist at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). He is a graduate of The College of William and Mary and earned a PhD in Cellular and Molecular Medicine from Johns Hopkins. Andrew is an author of more than 10 book chapters and peer-reviewed journal articles, including publications in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS), Cancer Research, and Clinical Infectious Diseases. Dr. Goodwin's biomedical analysis and writing has also appeared via Chimera Research Group and SeekingAlpha.
About Chris De Savi - LinkedIn
Chris De Savi is a drug discovery executive who's worked for many years at Kymera Therapeutics and AstraZeneca. He frequently shares his thoughts on industry developments and helpful infographics on LinkedIn.
He has a sustained track record of meaningful drug discovery as demonstrated through the invention of 10 clinical candidate drugs for oncology and inflammation disease - most recently KT-333, a selective STAT3 degrader for the treatment of hematological malignancies and solid tumors; BLU-945, a EGFR T790M/C797S triple mutant inhibitor for the treatment of lung cancer; AZD4573, a selective CDK9 inhibitor for the treatment of hematological malignancies and AZD9496, an oral, selective estrogen receptor degrader for the treatment of ER+ breast cancer. Co-discovered Barasertib, a selective Inhibitor of Aurora B kinase for the treatment of AML.
About Sara Nayeem - Twitter (@SaraNayeem)
Sara Nayeem is a Partner at Avoro Ventures investing in biopharma (previously NEA). She frequently posts advice for life science leaders with respect to biotech business strategy.
Sara has 17 years of banking and institutional investment experience. Prior to joining Avoro Ventures in February 2021, Sara was a Partner at New Enterprise Associates (NEA) focused on private biopharma investments. Over her 12 years at NEA, Sara invested across six funds totaling greater than $15 billion in committed capital. She played a key diligence and management role in 25 investments, from which there have been 10 IPOs and 9 acquisitions with upfront payments exceeding $16 billion. Prior to joining NEA, Sara worked in investment banking at both Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley. Sara concurrently earned her MD (cum laude) and MBA from Yale University, where she was a Yale MBA Scholar. She received her AB (magna cum laude) in Biology from Harvard University. Sara currently serves on the board of Vanqua Bio Inc., a biotechnology company focused on developing novel therapies for Parkinson’s disease and other neurological disorders, and as a board observer for Scribe Therapeutics, a private molecular engineering company developing CRISPR-based in vivo therapies.
About Keith Hornberger - Twitter (@KRHornberger)
Keith Hornberger is a senior director of medicinal chemistry at Arvinas, and frequently posts educational twitter threads on drug discovery concepts.
Prior to Arvinas, Keith spent many years at Boehringer Ingelheim, OSI Pharmaceuticals, and GlaxoSmithKline (Research Triangle Park). Keith brings the perspective of someone who has worked in both large pharma and startup environments and is passionate about education.
About Ingo Hartung - Twitter (@HartungIngo)
Ingo Hartung is a drug discovery leader at Merck KGaA, and frequently shares updates from the literature and conferences.
Ingo Hartung is senior director of Medicinal Chemistry at Merck KGaA and leads Merck’s targeted protein degradation technology platform. He frequently shares updates from drug discovery literature and conferences. Prior to Merck, he worked at Schering AG and Bayer AG for 14 years, most recently as VP of Medicinal Chemistry with a focus on epigenetics and immuno-oncology. He contributed to the identification and progression of clinical candidates in oncology & cardiology. Ingo is a member of the Advisory Board of the European Federation of Medicinal Chemistry and of the Steering Committee of the Chemistry in Cancer Research Working group of the AACR.
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