We are happy to share that Xuping Xie, PhD has been appointed as the Scientific Director for the Institute for Drug Discovery (IDD). Dr. Xie has direct industrial (7 years at Novartis) and academic (7 years at UTMB) expertise in antiviral drug discovery and virus research. He pioneered the antiviral approach of targeting flavivirus NS4B protein, which led to the first dengue clinical compound currently in phase I. He developed the first peer-reviewed reverse genetic system for SARS-CoV-2, which facilitated the development of the first COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer. He is instrumental in all the ongoing scientific initiatives at the Institute for Drug Discovery. He has published over 120 papers on leading scientific journals, among which 60 were first- or senior-authored by him. Dr. Xie is currently an Associate Professor (NTT) in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and co-leads the mega UTMB-Novartis Alliance for Pandemic Preparedness.
