Profile
Dr. Corey Hopkins is an experienced and highly trained medicinal
chemist who has extensive experience in all aspects of medicinal
chemistry (hit-to-lead, lead identification, lead optimization,
SAR, ADME, pre-IND studies). Dr. Hopkins has been involved in small
molecule drug discovery in both industry and academia for more than
a decade. During his graduate work, he worked on the total
synthesis of complex natural products, synthetic methodology
development, and pharmacophore profiling for Cdc25 phosphatase
inhibitors. As a medicinal chemist with Sanofi Pharmaceuticals he
was a key contributor on a number of projects within the CNS,
skeletal and inflammatory related therapeutic targets, such as
multiple sclerosis, depression, rheumatoid arthritis and
osteoporosis; culminating in several projects advancing into
development status. Dr. Hopkins is currently the Associate Director
of Medicinal Chemistry for the Vanderbilt Center for Neuroscience
Drug Discovery, the Co-Director, Vanderbilt Specialized Chemistry
Center for Accelerate Probe Development and an Assistant Professor
of Pharmacology and Chemistry. He is currently the chemistry team
leader for the development of novel mGlu4 positive allosteric
modulators for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease through a
grant from the Michael J. Fox Foundation. In this capacity, Dr.
Hopkins is responsible for all aspects of the chemistry effort
(design of novel scaffolds, coordination in vitro/in vivo
pharmacokinetic studies, in vivo biology studies). This program has
now advanced to pre-IND studies for clinical candidate advancement
with several compounds exhibiting significant effects in
pre-clinical rodent models of PD along with promising pre-clinical
toxicology studies. In addition to his efforts with the mGlu4
project, Dr. Hopkins oversees a team of chemists working on the
development of novel M1 positive allosteric modulators for the
potential treatment of the cognitive deficits in Alzheimer’s and
schizophrenia. Lastly, Dr. Hopkins has had a long standing
collaboration with Dr. Charles Hong (Vanderbilt) looking for
inhibitors of the BMP pathway for the potential treatment of the
rare disease Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva (FOP) which is a
devastating disease in children. Dr. Hopkins has been the author or
co-author on more than 30 original research manuscripts and more
than 15 patents along with numerous review articles, book chapters
and invited research talks.