Margaret Phillips, PhD

Professor
Endowed Title: Carolyn R. Bacon Professorship in Medical Science and Education
Beatrice and Miguel Elias Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Science
Pharmacology
Graduate Program: Biological Chemistry
Molecular Biophysics

Contact Information

UT Southwestern Medical Center
5323 Harry Hines Boulevard
Dallas, Texas 75390

Office Phone: 214-645-6164
Office Fax: 214-645-6166

margaret.phillips@utsouthwestern.edu

Biography

Margaret A. Phillips was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1959. She received her undergraduate degree in Biochemistry from the University of California, Davis (1981) and her PhD in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from the University of California, San Francisco (1988), where she was also a postdoctoral fellow in the Dept. of Biochemistry (1988-1992).

Dr. Phillips is currently a Professor in the Department of Pharmacology at UT Southwestern, where her research focuses on the mechanistic and structural analysis of enzyme drug targets from parasitic protozoa. She also chairs the Biological Chemistry Graduate Program.

Education

Graduate SchoolUniversity of California (1988)

Research Interests

Drug design in protozoan parasites
Pyrimidine biosynthesis as a drug target in malarial parasites
Regulation and function of polyamine biosynthesis in African trypanosomes

Publications

Featured
Regulated expression of an essential allosteric activator of polyamine biosynthesis in African trypanosomes

Willert, E.K. and Phillips, M.A. , PLoS pathogens , October 2008; (4 (10)):e1000183

Featured
Structure-Guided Lead Optimization of Triazolopyrimidine-Ring Substituents Identifies Potent Plasmodium falciparum Dihydroorotate Dehydrogenase Inhibitors with Clinical Candidate Potential.

Coteron JM, Marco M, Esquivias J, Deng X, White KL, White J, Koltun M, El Mazouni F, Kokkonda S, Katneni K, Bhamidipati R, Shackleford DM, Angulo-Barturen I, Ferrer SB, Jime´nez-Di´az MB, Gamo FJ, Goldsmith EJ, Charman WN, Bathurst I, Floyd D, Matthews D, Burrows JN, Rathod PK, Charman SA, Phillips MA, Journal of medicinal chemistry, 2011 Jul; :5540-61

Featured
Allosteric regulation of an essential trypanosome polyamine biosynthetic enzyme by a catalytically dead homolog

Willert, E.K. and Phillips, M.A. , Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA , 2007; (104):8275-8280

Lead optimization of aryl and aralkyl amine-based triazolopyrimidine inhibitors of plasmodium falciparum dihydroorotate dehydrogenase with antimalarial activity in mice.

Gujjar R, El Mazouni F, White KL, White J, Creason S, Shackleford DM, Deng X, Charman WN, Bathurst I, Burrows J, Floyd DM, Matthews D, Buckner FS, Charman SA, Phillips MA, Rathod PK, Journal of medicinal chemistry, 2011 Jun; 54 (11):3935-49

Evolution of substrate specificity within a diverse family of beta/alpha-barrel-fold basic amino acid decarboxylases: X-ray structure determination of enzymes with specificity for L-arginine and carboxynorspermidine.

Deng X, Lee J, Michael AJ, Tomchick DR, Goldsmith EJ, Phillips MA, The Journal of biological chemistry, 2010 Aug; 285 (33):25708-19

Chemical genetics of Plasmodium falciparum

Guiguemde WA, Shelat AA, Bouck D, Duffy S, Crowther GJ, Davis PH, Smithson DC, Connelly M, Clark J, Zhu F, Jimenez-Diaz MB, Martinez MS, Wilson EB, Tripathi AK, Gut J, Sharlow ER, Bathurst I, El Mazouni F, Fowble JW, Forquer I, McGinley PL, Castro S, Angulo-Barturen I, Ferrer S, Rosenthal PJ, Derisi JL, Sullivan DJ, Lazo JS, Roos DS, Riscoe MK, Phillips MA, Rathod PK, Van Voorhis WC, Avery VM, Guy RK , Nature , 2010; (465):311-315

Structural plasticity of malaria dihydroorotate dehydrogenase allows selective binding of diverse chemical scaffolds.

Deng X, Gujjar R, El Mazouni F, Kaminsky W, Malmquist NA, Goldsmith EJ, Rathod PK, Phillips MA , J Biol Chem , 2009; (in press)

Identification of a metabolically stable triazolopyrimidine-based dihydroorotate dehydrogenase inhibitor with anti-malarial activity in mice.

Gujjar, R., Marwaha, A., El Mazouni, F., White, J., White, K.L., Creason, S., Shackleford, D.M., Baldwin, J., Charman, W.N., Buckner, F.S., Charman, S., Rathod, P.K. and Phillips, M.A. , J. Med. Chem , 2009; (52):1864-72

Ornithine decarboxylase and spermidine synthase RNAi-mediated gene silencing in Trypanosoma brucei provides insight into the regulation of polyamine biosynthesis

Xiao, Y., McCloskey, D.E. and Phillips, M.A. , Eukaryotic Cell , 2009; (8(5)):747-55

Honors/Awards

Medicines for Malaria Venture

Project of the Year (2010)

Burroughs Wellcome Fund Scholars Award in Molecular Parasitology

(1999)

American Heart Association Established Investigator Award

(1996)

Burroughs Wellcome Fund, New Investigator Award in Molecular Parasitology

(1995)

Professional Associations/Affiliations

American Chemical Society

American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

American Society of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics

American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene