Gregory L. Verdine

Gregory L. Verdine (born June 10, 1959) is an American chemical biologist, biotech entrepreneur, venture capitalist and university professor. He is a founder of the field of chemical biology, which deals with the application of chemical techniques to biological systems. His work has focused on mechanisms of DNA repair and cell penetrability.

Verdine is the co-inventor with Christian Schafmeister of stapled peptides, a new class of drugs that combines the versatile binding properties of monoclonal antibodies with the cell-penetrating ability of small molecules. Verdine coined the term "drugging the undruggable" to describe the unique capabilities of stapled peptides. A close analog of a stapled peptide drug invented in the Verdine Lab, sulanemadlin (ALRN-6924), is a first-in-class dual MDM2/MDMX inhibitor currently in Phase II clinical development by Aileron Therapeutics, which he co-founded in 2005. FogPharma, founded in 2016, aims to further develop stapled peptide technology for therapeutic use.

He has founded numerous other drug discovery companies, including six that are listed on the NASDAQ. His companies have succeeded in developing two FDA-approved drugs, romidepsin and paritaprevir, which are, respectively, an anticancer agent used in cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) and other peripheral T-cell lymphomas (PTCLs), and an acylsulfonamide inhibitor that is used to treat chronic hepatitis C. Provided by Wikipedia