Meet Micah Niphakis, director of chemical biology at Lundbeck’s La Jolla Research Center near San Diego, California. Micah’s work is at the beginning phase of Lundbeck’s Research and Development team and value chain, discovering early-stage molecules for untreated brain diseases. His passion for science has shaped him into a team leader who is tirelessly dedicated to solving some of neuroscience’s most challenging development areas. 

I enjoyed chemistry and biology in middle and high school but didn't really consider becoming a scientist until my first year in college. I started college on a pre-med track but quickly realized I was more interested in chemistry after taking my first organic chemistry class. I was captivated by how you could build almost any molecule by stringing various chemical reactions together and could rationally design chemicals with new and useful properties. 

It wasn't intentional. My postdoc advisor suggested I work on a project that leveraged my background in chemistry to study the endocannabinoid system, an important neurological pathway that regulates things like sleep, movement and pain. This was my first exposure to neuroscience and it opened my eyes to the ubiquity of brain diseases and the immense challenge of treating them. 

I lead a Chemical Biology group that develops and implements screening approaches to identify molecules that interact with disease-driving proteins. We rely heavily on chemoproteomics, a field that uses chemical techniques to study proteins in their native settings. These technologies allow us to trace the protein targets of molecules in cells or tissues. We also support multiple programs by characterizing the potency, selectivity and mechanism of early drug candidates in living systems to ensure we are focusing our efforts on the highest quality chemical starting points to build our pipeline. 

I joined Lundbeck as a part of the Abide Therapeutics acquisition in 2019. Lundbeck provided a unique opportunity for us to develop our Chemical Biology platform and focus it on treating brain diseases. It's been a fun ride so far.

At a foundational level, it's the people that will one day benefit from the medicines we are working on. When I get up each morning though, I get excited by the opportunity to work with wonderful colleagues to tackle some of the most challenging problems in human health.

One that comes to mind is the challenge of measuring the health of a brain in a living person. Clinicians generally rely on symptoms rather than direct biomarkers to tell if something is going wrong in the brain. This is problematic because symptoms can emerge at a very late stage in the disease process and are often an imprecise manifestation of the underlying pathology. This challenge is a major impediment to diagnosing neurological disorders, identifying at-risk populations, and measuring the efficacy of medicines for brain diseases.

As a postdoc, I worked with a few lab mates to develop a new class of molecule that inhibited an enzyme called monoacylglycerol lipase, a central component of the endocannabinoid system. These compounds were remarkably selective and showed promise for treating pain and movement disorders. Abide Therapeutics further developed these molecules into high-quality drug candidates that Lundbeck later acquired. They're now being tested in patients, and I'm really proud to have been a part of that early work.

I enjoy woodworking, running, reading, and just being outside in general. I’ll take every opportunity I can to run or hike the local trails in San Diego or backpack with my family in the mountains.