Alison Axtman, Ph.D.

Alison Axtman, Ph.D., is a principal investigator in medicinal chemistry at SGC-UNC and Assistant Professor in the Division of Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry Department in the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. Her interests lie at the interface of chemistry and biology, with a focus on using small molecules to explore and impact disease-propagating biological pathways, especially those that cause neurodegenerative diseases. Active projects are aimed at finding pre-clinical small molecule candidates that address the need for new therapeutics in the areas of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD), among others. She joined SGC-UNC after working at GlaxoSmithKline on the Chemical Biology team at the RTP site. Before that, Axtman completed her doctorate at the University of Kansas in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry with Brian Blagg and postdoctoral studies at Stanford University in the laboratory of Paul Wender. She is eager to enable the efforts of other investigators through sharing high-quality small molecule tools to speed the drug discovery process and more quickly help patients in need. Her Bibliography can be found here.