Interview with Dr. Mark Cockett: current trends in screening for antiviral therapeutics. Interviewed by Nina N. Brahme and Devin J. Noblin

Dr. Mark Cockett is Vice President of Infectious Diseases and Applied Genomics at Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS). In this interview, we ask Dr. Cockett about considerations that major pharmaceutical companies such as BMS make when screening for and developing antiviral small molecule therapeutics. We discuss the rationale behind an unbiased screening approach that led to recent published work identifying a hepatitis C-specific NS5A inhibitor. We conclude by asking about the emerging role of academia in antiviral drug discovery and future directions of pathogen drug discovery in general.     

Dr. Haifan Lin. Interviewed by Han Lee and Rachel Rosenstein

Dr. Haifan Lin is professor of Cell Biology at Yale University, where he studies the mechanism of stem cell self-renewal in fruit flies, mice, and human cancer cells. Recently named director of the Yale Stem Cell Center, Dr. Lin has made seminal contributions to the stem cell field, most notably his demonstration of the stem cell niche theory using the fruit fly model, his discovery of the PIWI/AGO gene family that is essential for stem cell division in diverse organisms, and his recent finding of a group of small RNAs called PIWI-interacting, or piRNAs, which may play a crucial role in stem cell proliferation and germline development. Dr. Lin’s work on piRNAs was recognized by Science Magazine as a top scientific breakthrough of 2006. Recently, the Lin lab has begun exploring the role of these molecules in stem cell division and oncogenesis.     

Dr. Tian Xu. Interviewed by Thomas Ni and Rachel Rosenstein

Tian Xu is professor and vice chairman of Genetics at Yale University and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. His lab is working to understand the mechanisms of tumorigenesis and metastasis using Drosophila and mouse models. Notably, Dr. Xu has developed the powerful piggyBac transposon mutagenesis system, which has allowed investigators to perform forward genetics in mammalian models. This approach should prove instrumental in the identification of important genes involved in human diseases.