Michelle Arkin, PhD
Professor
Pharmaceutical Chemistry
School of Pharmacy

415-514-4313

Michelle’s lab develops innovative approaches to screen for chemical tools and drug leads, using biophysical approaches like fragment-based drug discovery and biological approaches including high-content imaging with primary cells and organisms. Our goal is to demonstrate ‘druggability’ of new target classes and to use our compounds to discover new targets for drug discovery.

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Areas of interest include protein-protein interactions, allosteric and scaffolding sites in enzymes, and orphan and neglected diseases. Michelle is co-Director of the Small Molecule Discovery Center, a collaborative research and core lab that includes a high-throughput screening facility and medicinal chemistry (smdc.ucsf.edu).

Awards

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  • Outstanding Faculty Mentor, Associated Students of the Graduate Division, UCSF, 2025
  • Harrison Howe Award, Rochester section of American Chemical Society, 2025
  • Gordon Hammes Lecture Award, American Chemical Society, Biological Division, 2024
  • Cope Scholar Award, American Chemical Society, Organic Division, 2024
  • Breakthrough Chemical Biology Research Award, ONO Pharma Foundation, 2018-2021
  • Daymon Runyon – Walter Winchell Cancer Research Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship, Daymon Runyon – Walter Winchell Cancer Research Foundation, 1997-1999
  • National Institutes of Health Traineeship, National Institutes of Health, 1995-1997
  • Predoctoral Fellowship, National Science Foundation, 1992-1995
  • Blodgett Fellowship, General Electric Foundation, 1991-1992
  • European Traveling Fellowship, Bryn Mawr College, 1990-1991
  • Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association Scholarship, Armed Force, 1989
  • Dorothy Nepper Marshall Fellowship, Bryn Mawr College, 1989
  • Shippen Science Scholarship, Bryn Mawr College, 1989

Education & Training

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  • Protein Engineering Genentech 6/1998
  • PhD Chemistry Caltech 02/1997
  • AB Chemistry Bryn Mawr College 06/1990

Websites

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Publications (192)

Top publication keywords:
Interleukin-2Protein Interaction MapsProto-Oncogene Proteins c-rafCysteine EndopeptidasesSmall Molecule LibrariesProteinsHigh-Throughput Screening AssaysCaspase 6Adenosine TriphosphatasesEstrogen Receptor alpha14-3-3 ProteinsProtein BindingDrug Evaluation, PreclinicalCysteineDrug Discovery

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