Faculty

Dr. James Leahy

Professor & Chair

Contact

Office: CHE 205
Email: jwleahy@usf.edu 

Education

B.S., University of South Florida
Ph.D., University of South Florida
Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Pennsylvania

Professional Experience

University of California, Berkeley, Assistant Professor, 1992 – 1998
MetaXen, Director of Chemistry, 1998 – 1999
Exelixis, Senior Director of Chemistry, 1999 - 2011

Research

The ultimate goal of the research in our labs is the discovery of new drug candidates with fully optimized pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamics parameters. Professor Leahy has extensive experience in this area, having advanced more than a dozen compounds into human clinical trials including the discovery of Cometriq/Cabozantinib/XL184. Toward this end, the Leahy group is actively engaged in collaborative research efforts aimed at the synthesis and optimization of small molecule leads in a number of therapeutic areas as well as the pursuit of novel synthetic methodology.