August 17, 2011
Scott Singleton, PhD, has been named vice chair of the Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy.
“Professor Singleton has extensive administrative experience, including running the School’s graduate program and initiating the biotechnology start-up company. He is also a winner of multiple instructor-of-the-year awards,” says David Lawrence, PhD, an Eshelman Distinguished Professor and chair of the division. “I feel fortunate that he has agreed to assume the position of vice chair. The Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products will gain from his experience as an administrator and his passion as an educator.
Singleton is an associate professor whose NIH-sponsored research program endeavors to understand the molecular basis for the evolution of drug resistance in pathogenic microorganisms. In 2010, his research spawned Synereca Pharmaceuticals, a company focusing on inhibiting RecA, which is a key enzyme in bacterial DNA repair as well as in the development and transmission of antibiotic resistance. He is also an award-winning teacher of organic chemistry and medicinal chemistry for undergraduate, graduate, and professional students.
Prior to his appointment to the faculty of UNC in 2003, Singleton spent seven years as an assistant professor in the Departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Cell Biology at Rice University.
Singleton holds a BA in chemistry and in biology from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, and a PhD in organic chemistry from the California Institute of Technology. He was an NSF postdoctoral fellow at Pennsylvania State University.