Cancer Drug Discovery: A Synthetic Lethality Approach Using Integrated Platforms

Michael Kappler, PhD, Director, Head of Research Informatics, IDEAYA Biosciences

Michael Kappler, PhD, is the Director and Head of Research Informatics at IDEAYA Biosciences, specializing in R&D solutions for scientific workflow optimization. Previously, he served as the Associate Director at IDEAYA and Senior Principal Scientist at Nurix Therapeutics, where he developed informatics platforms for biotech research. He is also the CEO and Founder of Moonlight Informatics & Computing Knowledge LLC, developing three-dimensional molecular fingerprint technology. Dr. Kappler serves on the Steering Committee of the Pistoia Alliance, supporting pre-competitive collaboration in life sciences. He completed his PhD in Chemistry at UC Santa Cruz under W. Todd Wipke and earned a BS in Chemistry from Eastern Michigan University.

Tamsin Mansley, PhD, President, Optibrium Inc.

Tamsin Mansley, PhD, is the President of Optibrium, Inc. and is an experienced drug discovery scientist, problem solver and leader with over 20 years of experience in the field. She currently heads Optibrium’s Application Science team, equipping customers with the resources they need for success.

Tamsin holds a PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of East Anglia, UK, and pursued postdoctoral research in Professor Philip Magnus’s lab at the University of Texas, Austin. She began her career as a medicinal chemist at leading biopharma companies, including Eli Lilly and UCB, before transitioning into application science roles at Tripos, Dotmatics and OpenEye.

Janice Darlington, Customer Engagement Scientist, Collaborative Drug Discovery

Janice Darlington is a Customer Engagement Scientist at Collaborative Drug Discovery – CDD VAULT. She has supported CDD’s scientific community in their research workflows since 2019. Her scientific background spans 27+ years in the San Diego drug discovery landscape. Her first foray into amassing significant amounts of scientific data occurred while working as a research associate, where she equipped and operated the high-throughput molecular profiling lab at Merck Research Laboratories – San Diego (MRL-SD).

(Moderator) Eric Gifford, PhD, Business Development Consultant, Collaborative Drug Discovery

Eric Gifford, PhD, serves as a Business Development Consultant at Collaborative Drug Discovery. With previous leadership roles at MSD and Merck, he brings extensive experience in computational toxicology and scientific informatics. During his 14 years at Pfizer, he developed computational methods for drug discovery. He holds a PhD in Chemistry from The University of Toledo.