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Helen Diller Family Compr Cancer Ctr
JAMES A. WELLS, PHD

Harry Wm. and Diana V. Hind Distinguished Professorship in Pharmaceutical Sciences, UCSF
Member, UCSF Biomedical Sciences Program (BMS) and Herbert Boyer Program in Biological Sciences (PIBS)

CONTACT

jim.wells@ucsf.edu
(415) 514-4498 (voice)
(415) 514-4507 (fax)

Box 2330, UCSF; San Francisco, CA 94158-2330

EDUCATION

University of California, Berkeley, CA, B.A., 1973, Biochemistry
Washington State University, Ph.D., 1979, Biochemistry
Washington State University Postdoc, 1979-1980, Chemistry
Stanford University Medical School, Postdoc, 1980-1982, Biochemistry

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

1982-1986

Scientist, Genentech, Inc., Dept. of Protein Engineering

1986-1989

Senior Scientist, Genentech, Inc., Dept. of Protein Engineering

1989-1998

Staff Scientist, Genentech, Inc., Dept. of Protein Engineering

1988-2005

Adjunct Asst, Assoc, and Full Professor, University of California, San Francisco, Dept. of Pharmaceutical Chemistry

1998-2005

President and CSO, Sunesis Pharmaceuticals

2005-present

Harry Wm. and Diana V. Hind Distinguished Professorship in Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California, San Francisco

2005-present

Director, Small Molecule Discovery Center, University of California, San Francisco

HONORS & AWARDS

1979- 1981

Damon M. Runyon - Walter Winchell Postdoctoral Fellowship

1990

Pfizer Award (given by the American Chemical Society for achievements in enzyme chemistry)

1998

Recipient of the Christian B. Anfinsin Award presented by the Protein Society

1998

Recipient of the Vincent du Vignead Award given by the American Peptide Society

1999

Elected Member to the National Academy of Sciences

2003

Recipient of the Hans Neurath Award given by the Protein Society

2006

Perlman Lecture Award of the ACS biotechnology Division
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

(selected from a total of 134)

Atwell, S.A., Ridgway, J.B.B., Wells, J.A. and Carter, P.J. (1997) J.Mol.Biol. 270, 26-35. "Stable Heterodimers from Remodeling the Domain Interface of a Homodimer using a Phage Display Library".

Baca, M., Presta, L.G., O'Connor, S. and Wells, J.A. (1997) J. Biol. Chem. 272, 10678-10684. "Antibody Humanization Using Monovalent Phage Display".

Ballinger, M. and Wells, J.A. (1998) Handbook of Proteases, Academic Press, Eds. Barrett, A., Rawlings, N.D. and Woessner, J.F., pp 289-294. "Subtilisin".

Braisted, A., Judice, K. and Wells, J.A. (1997) Methods in Enzymology Vol. 289 (in press) "Assembly of Proteins with Subtiligase".

Scheidig, A., Hynes, T. Pellitier, L., Wells, J.A. and Kossiakoff, A.A. (1997) Protein Science 6, 1806-1824. "Crystal Structures of Bovine Chymotrypsin and Trypsin Complexed to the Inhibitor Domain of Alzheimer's Amyloid -Protein Precursor (APPI) and Basic Pancreatic Trypsin Inhibitor (BPTI): Engineering of Inhibitors with Altered Specificities".".

Pearce, K.H., Potts, B.J., Presta, L.G., Bald, L.N., Fendly, B.M. and Wells, J.A. (1997). J. Biol. Chem. 272, 20595-20602. "Mutational Analysis of Thrombopoietin for Identification of Receptor and Neutralizing Antibody Sites".

Muller, Y.A., Li, B., Christinger, H.W., Wells, J.A., Cunningham, B.C. and De Vos, A.M. (1997) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 94, 7192-7197. "Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor: Crystal Structure and Functional Mapping of the Kinase Domain Receptor Binding Site".

Ellman, J., Stoddard, B., and Wells, J.A. (1997) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 94, 2779-2782. "Combinatorial Thinking in Chemistry and Biology".

Baca, M., Scanlan, T.S., Stephenson, R.C. and Wells, J.A. (1997) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 94, 10063-10068. "Phage Display of a Catalytic Antibody to Optimize Affinity for Transition-State Analog Binding".

Atwell, S., Ultsch, M., De Vos, A.M. and Wells, J.A. (1997) Science 278, 1124-1127 "Structural Plasticity in a Remodeled Protein-Protein Interface"

Cunningham, B.C. and Wells, J.A. (1997) Current Opinion in Structural Biology 7, 457-462. "Minimized Proteins".

Starovasnik, M., Braisted, A. and Wells J.A. (1997) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 94, 10080-10085. "Structural Mimicry of a Native Protein by a Minimized Binding Domain".

Wiesmann, C., Fuh, G., Christinger, H.W., Eigenbrot, C., Wells, J.A., De Vos, A.M. (1997) Cell 91, 695-704. "Crystal Structure at 1.7 resolution of VEGF in Complex with Domain 2 of the Flt-1 Receptor".

Fuh, G., Li, B., Crowley, C., Cunningham, B.C. and Wells, J.A. (1998) J. Biol. Chem. 273, 11197-11204. "Requirements for Binding and Signaling of the Kinase Domain Receptor for Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor".

Jones, J.T., Ballinger, M.D., Piscanne, P.I., Lofgren, J.A., Fitzpatrick, V.D., Fairbrother, W.J., Wells, J.A. and Sliwkowski, M.X. (1998) J. Biol. Chem. 273, 11667-11674. "Binding Interaction of the Heregulin- EGF-domain with ErbB3 and ErbB4 Receptors Assessed by Alanine-Scanning Mutagenesis".

Ballinger, M.D., Jones, J.T., Lofgren, J.A., Fairbrother, W.J., Akita, R.W., Sliwkowski, M.X. and Wells, J.A. (1998) J. Biol. Chem. 273, 11675-11684. "Selection of Heregulin Variants Having Higher Affinity for the ErbB3 Receptor by Monovalent Phage Display".

Pearce, K.H. and Wells, J.A. (1998) in Human Growth Hormone: Basic and Clinical Research. Human Growth Hormone: Basic and Clinical Research. Humana Press, Inc pp131-143 Activation of the Human Growth Hormone Receptor: Structure and Function of the Ligand-Receptor Complex".

Clackson, T., Ultsch, M., Wells, J.A. and De Vos, A.A. (1998) J. Mol. Biol. 277, 1111-1128. Structural and Functional Analysis of the 1:1 Growth Hormone:Receptor Complex Reveals the Molecular Basis for Receptor Affinity".

Ballinger, M.D. and Wells, J.A. (1998) Nature Struct. Biol. 5, 938-940. Will Any Dimer Do?" News and Views.

Erlanson, D.A. and Wells, J.A. (1998) Tet. Lett., 39, 6799-6802. Facile Synthesis of Cyclic Peptides Containing Di-, Tri-, Tetra- and Pentasulfides".

Fairbrother, W.J., Christinger, H.W., Cochran, A.G., Fuh, G., Keenan, C.J., Quan, C., Schriver, S.K., Tom, J.Y.K., Wells, J.A. and Cunningham, B.C. (1998) Biochemistry 37, 17754-17764. Novel Peptides Selected to Bind Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Target the Receptor-Binding Site".

Arkin, M.R. and Wells, J.A. (1998) J. Mol. Biol. 284, 1083-1094. Probing the Importance of Second Sphere Residues in an Esterolytic Antibody by Phage Display".

Pearce, K.H., Cunningham, B.C., Fuh, G., Teeri, T. and Wells, J.A. (1999) Biochemistry 38, 81-89. Growth Hormone Binding Affinity for Its Receptor Surpasses the Requirements for Cellular Activity".

Atwell, S. and Wells, J.A. (1999) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci USA 96, 9497-9502. "Selection for Improved Subtiligases by Phage Display".

Sidhu, S.S., Lowman, H.B., Cunningham, B.C. and Wells, J.A. (2000) Methods in Enzymology, Vol. 328. 333-363. "Phage Display for Selection of Novel Binding Peptides".

Sidhu, S.S., Weiss, G.A. and Wells, J.A. (2000) J. Mol. Biol. 296, 487-495. "High Copy Display of Large Proteins on M13 Phage for Functional Selections".

DeLano, W.L., Ultsch, M.H., De Vos, A.M. and Wells, J.A. (2000) Science 287, 1279-1283. "Convergent Solutions to Binding at a Protein-Protein Interface".

Weiss, G.A., Wells, J.A. and Sidhu, S.S. (2000) Protein Science 9, 647-654. "Mutational Analysis of the Major Coat Protein of M13 Identifies Residues that Control Protein Display"

Erlanson, D.A., Braisted, A.C., Raphael, D.R., Randal, M., Stroud, R.M., Gordon, E.M. and Wells, J.A. (2000) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 97, 9367-9372. "Site-Directed Ligand Discovery".

Arkin, M.R., Randal, M., DeLano, W., Hyde, J., Loung, T.N., Oslob, J.D., Raphael, D.R., Taylor, L., Wang, J., McDowell, R.S., Wells, J.A., Braisted, A.C. (2003) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci USA 100, 1603-1608. "Binding of Small Molecules to an Adaptive Protein:Protein Interface".

Nguyen, J. and Wells, J.A. (2003) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci USA, 100, 7533-7538. "Direct Activation of the Apoptosis Machinery as a Mechanism to target Cancer Cells".

Thanos, C.D., Randal, M., and Wells, J.A. (2003) J. Am. Chem. Soc., 125, 15280-15281. "Potent Small-molecule Binding to a Dynamic Hot-spot on IL-2".

Stroud, R.M. and Wells, J.A. (2004) Science STKE, 2004, re7. "Mechanistic Diversity of Cytokine Signaling Across Cell Membranes"

Arkin, M.R. and Wells, J.A. (2004) Nature Rev. Drug Disc. 3, 301-317. "Small Molecule Inhibitors of Protein-Protein Interactions: Progressing Towards the Dream"

Erlanson, D.A., Wells, J.A. and Braisted, A.B. (2004) Annu. Rev. Biophys. Biomol Struct. "TETHERING: Fragment-based Drug Discovery". 33, 199-233.

Hardy, J.A., Lam, J., Nguyen, J.T., O'Brien, T and Wells, J.A. (2004) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA "Discovery of an Allosteric Site in Caspases". 101, 12461-12466.

Hardy, J.A. and Wells, J.A. (2004) Current Opinion in Structural Biology 14, 706-715. "Searching for New Allosteric Sites in Enzymes"

Buck, E., Bourne, H. and Wells, J.A. (2005) J. Biol. Chem 280, 4009-4012. "Site-specific Disulfide Capture of Agonist and Antagonist Peptides to the C5a Receptor"

Buck, E. and Wells, J.A. (2005) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 102, 2719-2724. "Disulfide Trapping to Localize Small Molecule Agonists and Antagonists for the Complement 5a Receptor"

Scheer, J., Romanowski, M. and Wells, J.A. (2006) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 103, 7595-7600. "A Common Allosteric Site and Mechanism in Caspases"

10/3/06

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