8:30 AM to 4:00 PM | September 30, 2026

Annual U-M Drug Discovery Symposium

Rackham Graduate School, 915 E. Washington Street, Ann Arbor
Register here
Audience This is a public event.

Join us for a dynamic day of cutting-edge scientific presentations, networking opportunities and engaging discussions with the U-M drug discovery community.

Schedule

  • 8:30 a.m. | Networking with coffee and breakfast
    Assembly Hall, 4th floor, Rackham Graduate School
  • 9:00 a.m. | Symposium welcome 
    Peter Toogood, Ph.D. 
    Director, Michigan Drug Discovery 
    Amphitheatre, 4th floor, Rackham Graduate School
  • 9:10 a.m. | Research talk: Prokineticin receptor 2 — A new target for treating obesity
    Julien Seabag, Ph.D. 
    Associate Professor of Pharmacology, Caswell Diabetes Institute; Faculty Director of the Center for Chemical Genomics, Life Science Institute
    Amphitheatre, 4th floor, Rackham Graduate School
  • 10:00 a.m. | Research talk: Novel, long-acting, small molecule PKM2 activators and their broad application in blinding retinal disease
    Thomas J. Wubben, M.D., Ph.D. 
    Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Medical School
    Amphitheatre, 4th floor, Rackham Graduate School
  • 10:50 a.m. | Coffee and snack break 
    East Conference Room, 4th floor, Rackham Graduate School
  • 11:10 a.m. | Research talk: Why 90% of drug development fails — Can AI change the odds
    Duxin Sun, Ph.D. 
    Associate Dean for Research; Director, Institute of AI-Driven Therapeutics Discovery; Charles R. Walgreen Jr. Professor of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences; Director, Pharmacokinetics Corel, College of Pharmacy
    Amphitheatre, 4th floor, Rackham Graduate School
  • 12:00 p.m. | Networking lunch 
    Assembly Hall, 4th floor, Rackham Graduate School
  • 1:20 p.m. | Student spotlight research talks
    Amphitheatre, 4th floor, Rackham Graduate School
    • Exploring mechanisms and therapeutic strategies for mirvetuximab soravtansine resistance 
      Collin Coon, DiFeo lab, Medical School 
    • Biosynthetic enzyme discovery to assist cyclopeptide alkaloid bioactivity studies 
      Gabrielle May, Kersten lab, College of Pharmacy 
    • Photoaffinity profiling of small molecules affecting an aberrantly spliced undruggable oncogene  
      Marc Dean, Garner lab, College of Pharmacy
  • 1:50 p.m. | Research talk: Rational polypharmacology against adaptive resistance — A new vision for kinase inhibitor design
    Judy Leopold, Ph.D. 
    Research Professor of Radiology and Pharmacology,  Co-Leader, Developmental Therapeutics Program, Medical School
    Amphitheatre, 4th floor, Rackham Graduate School
  • 2:40 a.m. | Coffee and snack break 
    East Conference Room, 4th floor, Rackham Graduate School
  • 3:00 p.m. | Keynote presentation: Innovation in small molecule drug discovery — From mutant-selective covalent KRAS G12C inhibitors to reversible panKRAS inhibitors
    Margaret Chu-Moyer, Ph.D.
    Vice President of Research and Head of Small Molecule Therapeutic Discovery, Amgen
    Amphitheatre, 4th floor, Rackham Graduate School
  • 4:00 p.m. | Closing remarks 
    Peter Toogood
    Amphitheatre, 4th floor, Rackham Graduate School