Speaker: Scott S Walker, PhD, Sr. Principal Scientist Merck & Co., Inc. Rahway, NJ, USA
About the speaker: Scott earned a B.S. in Microbiology from The University of Maine and a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Connecticut Health Center. His graduate work focused on understanding the basic architecture of a eukaryotic nuclear origin of DNA replication. Following postdoctoral work on activated transcription in eukaryotes at The University of Massachusetts Medical Center, Scott joined Schering-Plough, Inc. in the antibacterial and antifungal drug discovery group where he continues in the Infectious Disease and Vaccine division of Merck & Co., Inc. (Rahway, NJ USA). Throughout a 25+-year pharmaceutical career as a basic scientist and team leader, his work has focused on antibacterial and antifungal compound discovery, target identification/validation, and lead prioritization and optimization. Scott is also an ardent educator having mentored many interns and HBCU students and lectured at several universities.
About the seminar: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a real and growing threat to human and animal health worldwide that jeopardizes many of the advances in medicine made over the past 75+ years. Combatting AMR requires exploiting novel targets in bacteria with new compounds that are not subject to resistance commonly encountered in the healthcare setting. This presentation will introduce two essential pathways found in drug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria and describe the discovery, characterization, and optimization of novel antibacterial small molecule and peptide inhibitors of these critical processes.
The event is free to attend and will be held in Stodder Hall, Room 57, on the UMaine Orono campus.