January 8th, 2026
Host: Mikolaj Slabicki / Katherine Donovan
Stephen Fesik
Vanderbilt University
Discovering ligands for E3 ligases and protein targets to achieve protein degradation using NMR-based fragment screening.
Stephen Fesik obtained a PhD in Medicinal Chemistry from the School of Pharmacy at the University of Connecticut and was a postdoc in the Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale Medical School. After his postdoc, he joined Abbott/Abbvie where, he was promoted to the highest level of the scientific ladder and served as Divisional Vice President of Cancer Research from 2000-2009. In 2009, he was recruited to Vanderbilt University where he is a professor of Biochemistry, Pharmacology, and Chemistry and holds the Orrin H. Ingram, II Chair in Cancer Research. Dr. Fesik has trained 75 postdocs, has over 300 publications and 75 patents, has been an invited speaker at many national and international meetings, has won several awards, and served on many Editorial and Scientific Advisory Boards. The focus of his research is on discovering drugs for highly validated but challenging targets using fragment-based methods and structure-based design.
Kate Jackson
C4 Therapeutics
Discovery of CFT8634, a Potent, Selective, and Orally Bioavailable Heterobifunctional Degrader of BRD9.
Kate earned her PhD in chemistry from the University of Colorado at Boulder. After her graduate studies, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University, where she worked with Professor Yoshito Kishi on the total synthesis and biological evaluation of natural products. Following her graduate work, Kate joined the medicinal chemistry team at Vertex Pharmaceuticals where she contributed to programs across multiple indications, including oncology, virology, and CNS disorders. Since 2018, Kate has been working in the targeted protein degradation space, mainly leading discovery-phase oncology programs at C4 Therapeutics.