Prof. Michelle Arkin

Michelle Arkin is a chemical biologist, Professor and Chair of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, and Executive Director of the Small Molecule Discovery Center (SMDC) at UCSF.  Michelle’s research focuses on developing methods and molecules that target currently ‘undruggable proteins,’ including protein-protein interactions and dynamic or intrinsically disordered proteins. She is a cofounder and Director of Ambagon Therapeutics, cofounder of Elgia Therapeutics, and advisor to several biotechs.  Prior to UCSF, Michelle was Associate Director of Cell Biology at Sunesis Pharmaceuticals, where she helped discover inhibitors of protein-protein interactions for IL-2/IL-2R and LFA1/ICAM (lifitegrast, marketed by Novartis).  She earned her PhD in Chemistry at Caltech and held a Damon Runyon postdoctoral fellowship at Genentech.