Cancer, Metabolism Researcher Thomas Hanigan Joins UHCOP Pharmacological & Pharmaceutical Sciences Department

September 12 – The University of Houston College of Pharmacy welcomes Thomas W. Hanigan, Ph.D., as an assistant professor of medicinal chemistry in the college’s Department of Pharmacological and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Hanigan joins UHCOP from the Scripps Research Institute, where he worked as a postdoctoral associate in the laboratory of Professor Ben Cravatt, Ph.D., using chemical proteomics to identify first-in-class small molecules targeting the mitochondrial insertase OXA1L. Hanigan earned his B.S. in chemistry and materials engineering from Iowa State University and his Ph.D. in medicinal chemistry from the University of Illinois under advisement from Jonna Fraser, Ph.D., and Pavel Petukhov, Ph.D.

Hanigan’s research leverages his background in chemical biology to identify novel cancer vulnerabilities resulting from the collateral amplification or deletion of essential metabolic enzymes during tumorigenesis. By manipulating the intrinsic chemistry of their endogenous ligands, his work aims to create selective small molecule therapeutics for cancer and metabolic disease that minimize off-target effects and resistance compared to traditional metabolic inhibitors.

Hanigan has authored or coauthored papers in such peer-reviewed journals as Nature Chemical Biology, ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters, Cell Chemical Biology, ChemMedChem, and PLOS ONE. He has presented his research at such meetings as Keystone Tumor Metabolism and the Microenvironment, MIKI (Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, and Illinois) Medicinal Chemistry Symposium, American Society of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, and the American Chemical Society Conference.

His past accolades include a PIIPS Fellowship from the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, a Charles Wesley Petranek Memorial Scholarship and several research awards from the University of Illinois Cancer Center. Hanigan is also first inventor of record on a non-provisional patent application and two provisional patent applications.

Hanigan serves on the guest editorial board of ASAPbio and as a manuscript reviewer for Life Science Alliance, Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry, PLOS ONE, and Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry.