Cancer and Tuberculosis Drug Discovery: A Theme Issue in Honor of Prof. William A. Denny

Dear Colleagues,

Professor William (Bill) Denny was born in Malvern, UK, and has a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. In addition to brief periods at Oxford University and at UC San Diego, he has worked at the University of Auckland in the Auckland Cancer Society Research Centre (ACSRC), where he has been Director from 1981 to today. He has mentored 80-plus PhD candidates and post-doctoral scientists in his laboratory and, to date, has published with them 720 scientific papers and more than 130 patent applications.

With the primary goal of developing novel drugs for cancer therapy and infectious diseases, Professor Denny has endeavoured, with colleagues, to develop a group in the ACSRC that covers the necessary skills (computer modelling, medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, cancer and radiation biology, immunology and clinical oncology) for drug design and development. He sought in particular to build commercial collaborations, with both existing pharma companies, and via new start-up companies, out of the ACSRC’s research. He has been a scientific co-founder of Proacta Inc (San Diego), Pathway Therapeutics Ltd (San Francisco) and KEA Therapeutics (Auckland). So far, this has resulted in 18 drugs from the ACSRC being taken to clinical trial.

Professor Denny’s own areas of research have included topoisomerase poisons, DNA-targeted alkylating agents, DNA methyltransferase inhibitors, kinase inhibitors (EGFR, PI3K, CSF1R), and hypoxia-activated prodrugs for cancer therapy and inhibitors of deazaflavin-dependent nitroreductase and ATP synthase for tuberculosis. Professor Denny’s awards include the UK Royal Society of Chemistry’s Lectureship (1999) and Adrien Albert Medal (2005), the University of Auckland Vice-Chancellor’s Commercialisation Medal (2012) and the American Chemical Society Biennial Medicinal Chemistry Award (2014). He is currently an associate editor of the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry (American Chemical Society) and of Anti-Cancer Agents in Medicinal Chemistry (Bentham).

Professor Denny, through his outstanding leadership in the medicinal chemistry of a wide range of classes of cancer drugs, as well as drugs for tuberculosis, and by his skills in chaperoning lead compounds to clinical candidates, has developed the ACSRC into a world-renowned academic centre for drug discovery and development. By his extraordinary efforts, and those of his senior colleagues, he has provided a paradigm for how academic research groups can make a material contribution to the treatment of the most serious human diseases. He is an inspiration to all, and on the occasion of his retirement as ACSRC director, we are pleased to invite you to submit a publication for this Special Issue.

Prof. Larry Wakelin
Prof. Dr. Sandra Gemma
Guest Editors

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