Dr. Peter Tonge is a Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and of Radiology (by courtesy) at Stony Brook University, where he is the Chair of the Department of Chemistry, and Director of the Center for Advanced Study of Drug Action. A primary focus of his program involves the integration of drug-target binding kinetics into predictions of drug activity to improve the selection and optimization of drug candidates. Projects in his lab include the design, synthesis, and evaluation of time-dependent enzyme inhibitors, the synthesis and evaluation of targeted protein degraders, the development of agents to image bacterial infection, and studies to elucidate how photoreceptors control and respond to the absorption of light. The translation of time-dependent enzyme inhibition or protein degradation to in vivo efficacy depends on target vulnerability, and a central goal of his program, is to develop vulnerability functions for targets particularly in antibacterial and oncology drug space. His awards include an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship and a Fellowship from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), which funded a sabbatical at Genentech.
