Hollis Showalter, a medicinal chemist and professor at the University of Michigan, gives the final Suter Science Seminar of the 2016-17 academic year on Wednesday, April 12, at Eastern Mennonite University. His talk, “Making Medicines that Matter: Stories of Drug Discovery within Academia,” will begin at 4 p.m. in Suter Science Center Room 106.
Showalter will explain the transition from large pharmaceutical companies conducting innovative drug research to academic and industrial research centers making these discoveries. Showalter will also review current projects at the University of Michigan, such as drugs to treat tuberculosis, obesity, drug addiction and cancer. Showalter’s seminar will conclude with personal perspectives from his medicinal chemistry career.
Previously, he worked in the chemistry department of pharmaceutical company Parke-Davis (later bought by Pfizer Global R&D) for over 25 years, finally becoming their director of antibacterials before transitioning to academia.
He has been a faculty member and researcher with the university for 10 years, and has also taught at Wayne State University in Detroit. He was educated at the University of Virginia and Ohio State University, then completed a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral fellowship at Rice University in Houston. Showalter has published an extensive list of abstracts, peer-reviewed manuscripts and book chapters, and holds 43 patents, issued and applied-for.
Attendees are invited to come 15 minutes early for refreshments and to greet the speaker.