DARRELL R DAVIS portrait
  • Chair, Medicinal Chemistry
  • Professor, Medicinal Chemistry
  • Adjunct Professor, Department Of Biochemistry

Education

  • B.S., Chemistry, University of Puget Sound
  • Ph.D., Organic Chemistry, University of Utah

Research Interests

Research in our laboratory is directed toward the discovery and optimization of novel therapeutics against RNA viruses, specifically focused on SARS CoV-2. We have discovered that plus-strand RNA virus depend on a novel mechanism of protein translation that can be effectively blocked by small molecule therapeutics having drug[1]like properties.

Structure-based drug design guides our therapeutic development activities, and structure biology is an integral component of the research to elucidate the mechanism by which small molecules target RNA-mediated processes for viral translation. The laboratory utilizes a diversity of methodologies including virology, structural biology, and synthetic organic chemistry.