BAGIM Event: Mike Bower

Please join us on April 25th at 6:00 pm at Verizon Alley (10 Ware St, Cambridge) for a talk by Mike Bower entitled: PXR Mitigation and Structure-Based Design

Upregulation of CYP450 3A4 via activation of the pregnane X receptor (PXR) is an active and growing concern for pharmaceutical discovery and development, as it can lead to unpredictable and potentially dangerous drug-drug interactions.  I will introduce a novel molecular descriptor, Smallest Maximum Interatomic Distance (SMID), which correlates with PXR activation.  I will also present a method for using the descriptor to guide chemists in modifying their lead compounds to decrease PXR activation. 

The presenter, Mike Bower, received a BS in Chemistry from the University of Delaware. During undergrad, Mike had his first computational chemistry job as an intern at DuPont Merck Pharmaceutical Co (28 years ago). Mike received a PhD in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from the University of California at San Francisco, where he worked in Fred Cohen’s lab on homology modeling and sidechain modeling using his program, SCWRL.  Since then, Mike has worked at Chiron pharmaceuticals, SmithKline Beecham/GlaxoSmithKline, Incyte Corporation, and now Vertex Pharmaceuticals.  He spent four years as the communication/social media officer for BAGIM.