Stephen Frye, Ph.D.

Dr. Stephen Frye is currently a Fred Eshelman Distinguished Professor and the Director of the Center for Integrative Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery (CICBDD) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). He is also co-director of the Molecular Therapeutics program in the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and the lead principal investigator for the North Carolina Comprehensive Chemical Biology Center, a UNC-based, National Cancer Institute (NCI) designated center that engages in oncology drug discovery. Prior to joining UNC to create the CICBDD in 2007, Dr. Frye was the world-wide vice president of Discovery Medicinal Chemistry (DMC) at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). Dr. Frye led DMC for seven years, overseeing five departments and more than 200 chemists in the U.S. and U.K. developing global target-class chemical science for GSK. During his 20-year career at GSK, the teams/departments led by Dr. Frye successfully developed three FDA approved drugs: Avodart, a dual 5alpha-reductase inhibitor for treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia, Tykerb, a dual erbB2/EGFR inhibitor for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer, and Pazopanib, a multi-targeted receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor for the treatment of renal cell carcinoma and soft tissue sarcoma.As director of the Center for Integrative Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery at UNC, Dr. Frye plays a key role in translational research through collaborative drug discovery projects with other UNC faculty. In addition, his Center has initiated a program in the area of chemical biology of chromatin regulation with an emphasis on methyl-lysine reading domains. The first IND approved compound discovered in the Center, will enter clinical trials in 2018.