Alison Axtman, Ph.D.

Alison Axtman is a synthetic medicinal chemist with more than 10 years of research experience working at the interface of chemistry and biology. Axtman earned her Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Kansas, and carried out her postdoctoral training in the Department of Chemistry at Stanford University. Axtman’s research has focused on the synthesis of small molecules that selectively modulate proteins implicated in disease-propagating pathways. As a member of the GSK Chemical Biology department, she led a program to understand the molecular basis of immune modulation by a class of natural products and developed analogs with improved drug properties. Axtman is currently an associate professor in the Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry Department in the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. At the SGC-UNC, she leads the design of novel chemical probes for understudied protein kinases that will be openly shared with collaborators to facilitate target discovery in human disease-relevant assays. When she’s not in the lab, Axtman can most often be found at the gym preparing for the next CrossFit or GRID competition with her teammates.