Jef De Brabander, Ph.D. Titles and Appointments Professor Endowed Title Julie and Louis Beecherl Jr. Chair in Medical Science School Medical School Department Radiation Oncology | Biochemistry | Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center Graduate Programs Organic Chemistry Biography Jef K. De Brabander, Ph.D., Professor of Radiation Oncology at UT Southwestern Medical Center, is a native of Belgium, where he pursued his undergraduate and graduate studies at the University of Gent. Following postdoctoral studies at the University of Geneva and Stanford University as a NATO and Fulbright-Hays fellow, he began his independent career at the University of Geneva. In 1998, Dr. Brabander was recruited to UT Southwestern, where he was promoted to Professor in 2007. He currently holds the Julie and Louis Beecherl, Jr., Chair in Medical Science, and was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences. Dr. Brabander was an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow, and co-founded three start-up companies including Reata Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Biogen Idec 2023). Education Graduate School Universiteit Gent (1993), Chemistry Research Interest Intertwining synthetic and medicinal chemistry with forward genetics, molecular pharmacology, biochemistry, and structural biology to discover novel biology and translational opportunities relevant to human diseases. Synthesis of complex, naturally occurring, molecular architectures Publications Thiophenyl Derivatives of Nicotinamide Are Metabolized by the NAD Salvage Pathway into Unnatural NAD Derivatives That Inhibit IMPDH and Are Toxic to Peripheral Nerve Cancers Theodoropoulos PC, Guo HH, Wang W, Crossley E, Rivera Cancel G, Fang M, Nguyen T, Baniasadi H, Williams NS, Ready JM, De Brabander JK, Nijhawan D ACS chemical biology 2024 Jun 19 1339-1350 Discovery and Optimization of N-Arylated Tetracyclic Dicarboximides That Target Primary Glioma Stem-like Cells Wang HY, Nguyen TP, Sternisha AC, Carroll CL, Cross B, Morlock L, Williams NS, McBrayer S, Nijhawan D, De Brabander JK Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 2024 Jun 67 9277-9301 Novel orexin receptor agonists based on arene- or pyridine-fused 1,3-dihydro-2H-imidazole-2-imines Wang W, Ranjan A, Zhang W, Liang Q, MacMillan KS, Chapman K, Wang X, Chandrasekaran P, Williams NS, Rosenbaum DM, De Brabander JK Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters 2024 Feb 99 Anticancer benzoxaboroles block pre-mRNA processing by directly inhibiting CPSF3 Tao Y, Budhipramono A, Huang J, Fang M, Xie S, Kim J, Khivansara V, Dominski Z, Tong L, De Brabander JK, Nijhawan D Cell Chemical Biology 2024 Jan 31 139-149.e14 Reply to: The G protein preference of orexin receptors is currently an unresolved issue Yin J, Kang Y, McGrath AP, Chapman K, Sjodt M, Kimura E, Okabe A, Koike T, Miyanohana Y, Shimizu Y, Rallabandi R, Lian P, Bai X, Flinspach M, De Brabander JK, Rosenbaum DM Nature communications 2023 Dec 14 Structural insights for selective disruption of Beclin 1 binding to Bcl-2 Pan YZ, Liang Q, Tomchick DR, De Brabander JK, Rizo J Communications Biology 2023 Dec 6 Inducible mismatch repair streamlines forward genetic approaches to target identification of cytotoxic small molecules Nguyen TP, Fang M, Kim J, Wang B, Lin E, Khivansara V, Barrows N, Rivera-Cancel G, Goralski M, Cervantes CL, Xie S, Peterson JM, Povedano JM, Antczak MI, Posner BA, Harvey CJ, Naughton BT, McFadden DG, Ready JM, De Brabander JK, Nijhawan D Cell Chemical Biology 2023 Nov 30 1453-1467.e8 Evaluation of the efficacy of the hypocretin/orexin receptor agonists TAK-925 and ARN-776 in narcoleptic orexin/tTA; TetO-DTA mice Sun Y, Ranjan A, Tisdale R, Ma SC, Park S, Haire M, Heu J, Morairty SR, Wang X, Rosenbaum DM, Williams NS, De Brabander JK, Kilduff TS Journal of Sleep Research 2023 Aug 32 Selective and brain-penetrant lanosterol synthase inhibitors target glioma stem-like cells by inducing 24(S),25-epoxycholesterol production Nguyen TP, Wang W, Sternisha AC, Corley CD, Wang HY, Wang X, Ortiz F, Lim SK, Abdullah KG, Parada LF, Williams NS, McBrayer SK, McDonald JG, De Brabander JK, Nijhawan D Cell Chemical Biology 2023 Feb 30 214-229.e18 Molecular mechanism of the wake-promoting agent TAK-925 Yin J, Kang Y, McGrath AP, Chapman K, Sjodt M, Kimura E, Okabe A, Koike T, Miyanohana Y, Shimizu Y, Rallabandi R, Lian P, Bai X, Flinspach M, De Brabander JK, Rosenbaum DM Nature communications 2022 Dec 13 Results 1-10 of 103 1 2 3 4 5 Next Last Honors & Awards Pilot Synergy Grant from the UTSW Circle of Friends. Award Plaque (2019) Elected FellowAmerican Association for the Advancement of Sciences (2014) Journal AwardFrom the editorial boards of Synlett and Synthesis (2006) Academic Development Program AwardChemistry Council of Merck Research Laboratories (2004-2008) Alfred P. SloanResearch Fellowship (2001) Fulbright-HaysAward (1995) NATOFellowship (1995) Prix STAS par l'Académie Royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de BelgiqueSTAS-award from the Royal Academy of Sciences, Letters and Beautiful Arts of Belgium (1994) Swiss National Science FoundationFellowship (1994) Institute for Scientific Research in Agriculture and IndustryScholarship (1989) Professional Associations/Affiliations American Association for the Advancement of Science (2014) American Chemical Society (1998) Consultant, Omm Scientific (2013-2015) Consultant, Revolution Medicines, Inc. (2015-2017) External Advisory Board member of the UC Irvine Cancer Center (2018-2020) Founding Member, Consultant and SAB, Barricade Therapeutics, Inc. (2018) Founding Member, Consultant and SAB, Elizabeth Therapeutics, LLC (2015-2017) Founding Member, Consultant and SAB, Lydian Neurosciences, Inc. (2019-2021) Founding Member, Consultant and SAB, Reata Pharmaceuticals, Inc (2003-2023) Founding Member, Consultant and SAB, SynAlpha Therapeutics, LLC (2013-2017) Member Scientific Advisory Board, Sunnylife Pharma, Indianapolis (2013-2018)
