Meet the Expert: Alison Axtman

Dr. Alison Axtman, PhD, researches and provides chemical tools to the larger scientific community so that new therapeutic remedies can be developed

Story by Sarah Clark | Photo Provided by Alison Axtman | Published February 11, 2025

Since her undergraduate career, Dr. Alison Axtman, PhD, has been carrying out laboratory-based research, studying the interface of chemistry and biology. Her current research at the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC) is vital in producing treatments for diseases whose exact causes aren’t yet fully understood.

The SGC is a public-private partnership that focuses on understanding the functions of all human proteins. In 2015, the SGC opened its first (and currently only) USA-based lab at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, where Alison serves as Principal Investigator in Medicinal Chemistry.

Alison’s research at the SGC-UNC focuses on providing chemical tools to the larger scientific community so that new therapeutic remedies can be developed. These chemical tools that she focuses on are small molecules, which she can use to then study the interactions they have with target proteins. “Enabled by chemistry, we are constantly pushing the boundaries of what is known about proteins implicated in disease and whether drugging them is a beneficial approach,” says Alison.

Alison has created valuable partnerships through SGC, including that of Dr. Thomas Durcan, PhD, the Director of The Neuro’s Early Drug Discovery Unit at McGill University.

“In developing models of brain disease on a dish, we are always looking for new ways that we could reverse the disease phenotype. We both were on the lookout for new ways to treat disease, all in an open and accessible manner. With [Alison’s] background in drug design, she made new molecules for us to test, leading to a number of new projects that are now moving along,” Dr. Durcan explains.

Alison’s work at the SGC-UNC has contributed greatly to the research community, aiding the overall understanding of the roles of specific proteins implicated in certain diseases such as Alzheimer’s and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Dr. David Litchfield, the Director of Research Infrastructure at the Schulich School of Medicine, and a colleague of Alison’s, can attest to her impact. “Dr. Axtman and her colleagues at UNC and the Structural Genomics Consortium have been responsible for some of the most significant recent advances in this field,” he says.

Before coming to UNC, Alison was at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) on a Chemical Biology team. GSK is where she met Dr. David Drewry, an Associate Professor and one of the lead architects of the research strategy at the SGC-UNC. Dr. Drewry has worked with her for over 10 years now and has seen her research in the lab first-hand.

“Our SGC-UNC labs strive to create inhibitors of proteins that we and the scientific community can use to understand the functions of these proteins in disease. Alison has been extremely successful [in] discovering these potent and selective tools, which we call chemical probes. Part of her success is due to her great attention to detail. She is careful and driven and knows what it takes to deliver a chemical probe or put the final touches on a paper to share her work,” Dr. Drewry shares.

An important note about Alison’s work, in line with the SGC’s mission, is that she practices open science, in which she openly shares her work with the overall scientific community without the barriers of paperwork or patents. “This approach magnifies the impact of the work accomplished in her lab and is a great way to speed up the overall process of meaningful scientific discovery,” Dr. Drewry adds.

While Alison’s accomplishments are exceptionally impactful, she isn’t stopping here and is constantly striving for growth. “Since the priorities of the SGC are always evolving, I have been exposed to new concepts and ideas that are outside of my day-to-day science. These experiences make me a better scientist,” she reflects. “I also hope to train the next generation of scientists and set them up for success in their own independent careers.” And though her lab work is primarily pre-clinical, it could provide the requisite foundations for clinical directions.

In recognition of her crucial work, Alison was recently named the first Maureen Daly Blouin Distinguished Fellow, which is an endowed fellowship to support early career investigation of open science drug discovery.

If you can’t find Alison in the lab, she may be in her garage-turned-gym with her husband, Matthew. The pair have been doing CrossFit for over a decade now. As former college athletes, Alison and her husband were eager to find another competitive athletic outlet that would challenge them both mentally and physically – just another testament to Alison’s tenacity and commitment to growth.