Professor Nathanael Gray

Nathanael Gray is a Professor of Chemical and Systems Biology at Stanford, Co-Director of Cancer Drug Discovery, Co-Leader of the Cancer Therapeutics Research Program, Member of Chem-H, and Program Leader for Small Molecule Drug Discovery for the Innovative Medicines Accelerator (IMA). His research uses the tools of synthetic chemistry, protein biochemistry, and cancer biology to discover and validate new strategies for addressing anti-cancer targets. Dr. Gray’s research has had broad impact in the areas of kinase inhibitor and degrader design and in circumventing drug resistance.  

Dr. Gray’s generalized strategy for structure-based design of inhibitors that stabilize the inactive kinase conformations (type II) has been widely adopted by the research community and has had a significant impact on the development of numerous inhibitors of tyrosine kinases that are currently undergoing clinical development. His success in developing and translating experimental anti-cancer agents has been due to his highly collaborative and integrative approach to research, as Dr. Gray has developed and led large project teams. Dr. Gray has also built a reputation as a strong partner for commercial entities needed to further clinical development, resulting in establishment of number of companies. Dr. Gray has further been involved with developing small molecule protein degraders, especially their application towards degrading protein kinases.