Kevin Dalby

Dr. Kevin Dalby (@KevinNDalby) is a professor of chemical biology and medicinal chemistry in the College of Pharmacy, and Department of Oncology at The University of Texas in Austin. He studies mechanisms of cell signaling to develop targeted therapeutics. Dr. Dalby's research areas include biochemistry, cancer, cell biology, chemical biology, drug discovery & diagnostics, and enzymology.

He has been interested in the “why” of chemical reactions since he was a student at the University of Cambridge, where he graduated with a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Organic Chemistry. This curiosity has led to his interest in the processes of cell signaling, and ultimately to cancer research. He has been fortunate to be trained by some of the worlds most prominent scientists. More recently he has also turned his attention to identifying ways to overcome infections by coronaviruses, such as the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) which is an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) and the National Institutes of Health, have recognized Dr. Dalby's efforts by supporting his research.

Dr. Dalby is the director of The Targeted Therapeutic Drug Discovery & Development Program (TTP). This program provides scientists in Texas access to resources for drug discovery research. By understanding cancer cell signaling, Dr. Dalby works to utilize technological advances to develop targeted pharmaceuticals for different cancers.

The Dalby laboratory is developing a small molecule screening program to identify strategies and lead compounds to address the current COVID-19 pandemic as well as future coronavirus outbreaks. These screens target multiple critical elements of a coronavirus infection cycle, including its ability to enter host cells, to replicate within the host, and to avoid the host’s immune surveillance. These screens make possible the implementation of strategies to target both host and viral proteins using FDA-approved drugs, drugs in pre-clinical development, as well as many thousands of in-house test compounds. While tremendous effort is underway to develop vaccines for the current pandemic, this development faces enormous challenges and will likely not address future epidemics. It is critical for the future health and economic security of the US to develop a suite of candidate drugs for future pandemics.