Panayotis “Pano” Theodoropoulos, M.D., Ph.D.

Pano Theodoropoulos, M.D., Ph.D., is a physician-scientist conducting laboratory research in the group of Dr. Deepak Nijhawan. His work focuses on discovering the mechanisms of action of bioactive small molecules and translating these insights into new therapeutic strategies for cancer.

Dr. Theodoropoulos has contributed to the elucidation of several bioactive small molecule mechanisms. He defined how Compound 21, a glioblastoma toxin, is metabolically activated through the NAD salvage pathway to inhibit IMPDH—work published in ACS Chemical Biology in 2024 and independently validated by the Parada Lab in Nature (2024). He is currently working on a small molecule with a novel cancer target. 

During his doctoral training, Dr. Theodoropoulos developed unbiased pharmacologic and biochemical approaches to identify targets of phenotypic screening hits. His work helped reveal that TASIN compounds selectively target the sterol isomerase EBP (Sci. Transl. Med. 2016, JACS 2020), enabling subsequent therapeutic development efforts in multiple sclerosis and cancer. He also co-discovered tumor-activated stearoyl-CoA desaturase (SCD) inhibitors with in vivo efficacy, findings published in Nature Chemical Biology, JACS, and J. Med. Chem. 

Other research experiences include defining how a Nicastrin mutation disrupts Notch signaling to cause immunodeficiency (published in PNAS), while working in Dr. Bruce Beutler's lab. He also participated in early work on low-complexity protein domains (Cell 2013, Science 2014) that formed part of Dr. Steven McKnight’s 2025 Lasker Award-recognized research. He also contributed to studies on glucose metabolism in Drosophila published in Communications Biology.

Dr. Theodoropoulos is an inventor on multiple patents involving cholesterol-pathway inhibitors, SCD inhibitors, and thiophenyl nicotinamide derivatives. His broader research goal is to define new druggable targets in cancer and translate these discoveries toward therapeutic approaches.