Dr. Patrick Gunning

Dr. Patrick Gunning was born in Paisley, Scotland in 1979. He spent his formative years on the beautiful island of Bute on the west coast of Scotland. He moved to Glasgow in 1997, where he completed his B.Sc. (hons) and Ph.D. in Chemistry with Profs. Andrew Benniston and Robert Peacock at the University of Glasgow. Patrick crossed the Atlantic in 2005 to pursue Post-doctoral studies at Yale University under the mentorship of Prof. Andrew Hamilton. There, he developed a love for medicinal chemistry and chemical biology.

 In 2007, Patrick accepted an Assistant Professorship position at the University of Toronto Mississauga Chemistry Department. In 10 years, Patrick is now a full Professor, a Canada Research chair in Medicinal Chemistry, and the Director of the Centre for Medicinal Chemistry. He has published ~ 100 research papers, won 19 research awards, including Canada’s Top 40 under 40, founded three pharmaceutical companies with over $22M in funding, and developed a dynamic and diverse medicinal chemistry program targeting protein-protein interactions, the most challenging of targets. Patrick’s team develop inhibitors of proteins that drive the rarest and lethal of human cancers, including glioblastoma, acute myeloid leukemia, multiple myeloma, and refractory medulloblastoma. These inhibitors are in advanced preclinical trials and en route to Phase I clinical trial.