CINDY CHU FOR UCSF
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KEVAN SHOKAT: DISCOVERY SCIENCE AND THE PATH TO CREATING NEW DRUGS Kevan Shokat (Ph.D. ’91, Chem) is professor and vice-chair of cellular and molecular pharmacology at UCSF, professor of chemistry in the Berkeley College of Chemistry, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. He is a pioneer in the field of chemical genetics, focusing on the development of chemical methods to decipher the role of individual kinases and their cellular signaling networks. After completing his Ph.D. in chemistry at UC Berkeley with advisor and then-faculty member Peter Schultz (who now leads Scripps Research), Shokat went to Stanford for postdoctoral research in immunology. It was there he first suggested that, rather than modify cell genetic structures to manipulate kinases, one could design small molecules that could block kinase signal paths directly. He states, “When I got to Stanford I threw myself into immunology, debating the fundamental questions of the day. I went from looking at molecules to cells.”
College of Chemistry, UC Berkeley