Gregory Thatcher

DEGREES AND APPOINTMENTS

  • PhD, University of Toronto, Canada, 1986
  • BSc, University of Manchester, UK, 1981
  • Research Associate, University of Sheffield, UK, 1986
  • Research Fellow, Oxford University, UK, 1988

Thatcher joined the University of Arizona in 2020 from the University of Illinois College of Pharmacy. While at the University of Illinois in Chicago (UIC), Thatcher acted as founder/leader of the Translational Oncology Program in the University of Illinois Cancer Center and co-director of the NIA Predoctoral Training Program in Alzheimer’s Disease & Related Dementia. Most importantly, in 2013, he founded a campus-wide and disease-agnostic drug discovery center at UIC, focused on small molecule therapeutics, which continues to play an active role in academic drug discovery across Chicagoland bioecosystem. Dr Thatcher created his first start-up biotech company in 1997, which successfully took an Alzheimer’s drug into human clinical trials. The Thatcher lab’s research has been continuously funded by the NIH since 2003, supported by NCI, NIA, NHLBI, and NIAID, resulting in over 170 publications and dozens of issued patents. Two new chemical entities that were licensed and successfully completed Phase 1 clinical trials for metastatic breast cancer in 2019, Rintodestrant and TTC-352, are proceeding in the clinic. For publications on therapeutics invented by Thatcher and his team, which have been trialed in human subjects.

Thatcher Research Group Publications

The first five publications listed below describe drugs that have completed Phase 1 trials:

Dudek, A. Z., Liu, L. C., Fischer, J. H., Wiley, E. L., Sachdev, J. C., Bleeker, J., Hurley, R. W., Tonetti, D. A., Thatcher, G. R. J., Venuti, R. P., and O'Regan, R. M. (2020) Phase 1 study of TTC-352 in patients with metastatic breast cancer progressing on endocrine and CDK4/6 inhibitor therapy, Breast Cancer Res Treat 183, 617-627.
Andreano, K. J., Wardell, S. E., Baker, J. G., Desautels, T. K., Baldi, R., Chao, C. A., Heetderks, K. A., Bae, Y., Xiong, R., Tonetti, D. A., Gutgesell, L. M., Zhao, J., Sorrentino, J. A., Thompson, D. A., Bisi, J. E., Strum, J. C., Thatcher, G. R. J., and Norris, J. D. (2020) G1T48, an oral selective estrogen receptor degrader, and the CDK4/6 inhibitor lerociclib inhibit tumor growth in animal models of endocrine-resistant breast cancer, Breast Cancer Res Treat 180, 635-646.
Xiong, R., Zhao, J., Gutgesell, L. M., Wang, Y., Lee, S., Karumudi, B., Zhao, H., Lu, Y., Tonetti, D. A., and Thatcher, G. R. (2017) Novel Selective Estrogen Receptor Downregulators (SERDs) Developed against Treatment-Resistant Breast Cancer, J Med Chem 60, 1325-1342.  
Xiong, R., Patel, H. K., Gutgesell, L. M., Zhao, J., Delgado-Rivera, L., Pham, T. N. D., Zhao, H., Carlson, K., Martin, T., Katzenellenbogen, J. A., Moore, T. W., Tonetti, D. A., and Thatcher, G. R. J. (2016) Selective Human Estrogen Receptor Partial Agonists (ShERPAs) for Tamoxifen-Resistant Breast Cancer, J Med Chem 59, 219-237.
Luo, J., Lee, S. H., VandeVrede, L., Qin, Z., Piyankarage, S., Tavassoli, E., Asghodom, R. T., Ben Aissa, M., Fa, M., Arancio, O., Yue, L., Pepperberg, D. R., and Thatcher, G. R. (2015) Re-engineering a neuroprotective, clinical drug as a procognitive agent with high in vivo potency and with GABAA potentiating activity for use in dementia, BMC Neurosci 16, 67.

https://www.pharmacy.arizona.edu/directory/profile/gregory-thatcher-phd