Kurt Deshayes's Biography

Kurt Deshayes, Senior Scientist, Early Discovery Biochemistry, Genentech

Kurt Deshayes is a Senior Scientist in Early Discovery Biochemistry Department at Genentech Inc. A native of Minnesota he received his bachelor degree in chemistry from Carleton College in Northfield. He obtained his Ph.D. with Jeffrey Winkler at the University of Chicago. After postdoctoral studies with D.J. Cram at UCLA he set up a laboratory working in chemical recognition and chemical physics at Bowling Green. He moved to Genentech in 1997 to investigate problems in chemical biology. His group has been investigating how manipulating protein-protein interactions modulates cellular signaling. Recently, he has been involved in studies of proteins that inhibit programmed cell death (apoptosis) in cancer cells, and how these proteins help provide resistance to conventional treatments. His long-term goal is the development of novel therapeutics that target cancer.