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Dr. Thanos has a strong background in structural biology, protein engineering and molecular recognition. Prior to Catalyst, he was a National Cancer Institute Postdoctoral Fellow in Jim Wells' Lab at Sunesis Pharmaceuticals. There he studied the affects of small molecules bound at protein hot spots. He solved the atomic structure of a complex between a small molecule drug bound to IL-2 and then used state of the art techniques in protein engineering to dissect the biophysical nature of the complex. Interestingly, Dr. Thanos discovered that IL-2 undergoes a dramatic conformational change from its unbound state in order to bind the small molecule with high affinity, a phenomenon not seen before in such an interaction. Before Sunesis, Chris was a National Institutes of Health Chemistry/Biology Interface Predoctoral Fellow at UCLA. Dr. Thanos characterized and solved the first atomic structures of SAM domains, a fundamental building block conserved in over 100 critical developmental and tumor forming proteins in humans. | 