JANE WITHKA Structural Biology and Biophysics

EDUCATION: Ph.D. in Biophysics from Wesleyan University.

EXPERIENCE: Over 34 years of experience in pharmaceutical industry including six pre-doctoral years in pharmaceutical development at Boehringer Ingelheim and over 28 post-doctoral years at Pfizer.

EXPERTISE: Structural biology, macromolecular NMR and biophysics. Responsible for the implementation and integration of lead identification and confirmation, target engagement and structural characterization methods into Pfizer’s discovery environment.

BIO

During Jane’s tenure at Pfizer, she initiated Fragment Based Drug Discovery (FBDD) as a multidisciplinary approach and was responsible for the strategic integration of FBDD in drug discovery resulting in multiple clinical candidates, portfolio management and initiatives for fragment library design. Additionally, she played a leadership role in the integration of alternative hit ID strategies including FBDD, Affinity Selection Mass Spectrometry (ASMS) and DNA encoded Library Screening (DELs).  During the last several years, Jane transitioned to collaboration lead where she was responsible for the identification of new target classes and modalities for small molecule targeting.  During this time, Jane proposed and coordinated multiple research partnerships, thereby coupling internal, academic and external resources to advance. This effort has led to an interest in targeting new modalities including multiple mechanistic strategies for RNA and condensates.

Jane received a BS in Pharmacy, a Ph.D. in Biophysics from Wesleyan University and completed post-doctoral studies at Harvard Medical School. During career, Jane has co-authored over 46 research papers.