Terri McClanahan's Biography

Terri McClanahan, Director, Profiling & Expression, Merck Biologics Discovery

Dr. McClanahan is currently the Director of the Profiling & Expression group in Biologics Discovery at Merck Research Laboratories. Her group combines multiple molecular approaches to interrogate disease mechanisms, working closely with discovery biologists and drug development teams to provide mechanistic data, disease association and biomarkers of drug response. These studies span from the earliest novel discovery projects, identifying molecular clues to the mechanism of action of novel molecules, tissue, cell type and disease tissue expression profiling, to more advanced projects, providing biomarker studies for translation to the clinic. Dr. McClanahan and her group have implemented high throughput molecular profiling techniques using a ‘systems biology’ approach to elucidate mechanisms of action of novel molecules, characterizing novel cellular populations involved in disease patho-mechanisms, with a specific emphasis on immune regulation and oncology. Dr. McClanahan and her group provided important molecular insights in the discovery and characterization of Th17 cells, the mechanism of action of IL-23/IL-23R, IL-17 and additional targets involved in autoimmune diseases, and provided key data for progressing these molecules towards development. Her group has contributed to the molecular understanding of immune regulation in anti-tumor responses including anti-PD-1 and additional immune-modulatory pathways for cancer therapy. During her career, she has contributed to over 85 published scientific articles, contributed to IND filings for anti-IL-10, anti-IL-17, anti-IL-23, anti-TSLP and anti-PD-1 and is a co-inventor on numerous patents.