Andrew Napper, PhD
Primary Title: Associate Director, Nemours Center for Childhood Cancer Research
Additional Title(s): Head - High Throughput Screening/Drug Discovery Laboratory Sr. Research Scientist Research Associate Professor, Jefferson Medical College
Bio: Dr. Andrew Napper is a native of England, and was awarded B.A. and M.A. degrees in chemistry from the University of Oxford before moving to the U.S. He was awarded a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Penn State University in 1989, after which he moved to the Boston area and worked in drug discovery for Genzyme, Enanta, ArQule, and Elixir Pharmaceuticals. While at Elixir, he played a leading role in the discovery of selisistat (EX-527), which was licensed to Siena Biotech and has progressed to Phase II clinical trials as a treatment for Huntington's disease. In 2005, he joined the University of Pennsylvania as Director of High-Throughput Screening in the Penn Center for Molecular Discovery, one of ten centers in the nationwide Molecular Libraries Screening Center Network. Dr. Napper joined the Nemours Center for Childhood Cancer Research in March 2009 to establish a High-Throughput Screening and Drug Discovery lab. He recruited a talented and experienced research group, and designed and oversaw construction of a fully functional lab equipped for biochemical and cell-based 384-well plate screening. The group is focused on the discovery of targeted therapies for rare pediatric diseases, especially cancer, that are underserved by current drug discovery efforts. This work involves collaboration with research investigators and clinicians at Nemours, and with the Broad Institute, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, the Lankenau Institute for Medical Research, Loyola University, the NIH Chemical Genomics Center, and the University of Delaware. Dr. Napper's research is funded by the Alex Lemonade Stand Foundation, the B-positive Foundation, Hyundai Hope on Wheels, the International Rett Syndrome Foundation, and the NIH through an R01 and the COBRE-supported Nemours Center for Pediatric Research. Dr. Napper has published more than 30 peer-reviewed papers and is an inventor on 10 issued patents. He serves on an NIH grant review panel, and he is Chair of the Academic Drug Discovery Group for the Society for Lab Automation and Screening. Dr. Napper is Editor-in-Chief of the journal Assay and Drug Development Technologies; a Review Editor for Frontiers in Pediatric Oncology; and Editor, Enzyme Assays for the NIH Center for Translational Therapeutics' Assay Guidance Manual.
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