Phillips named new Chair of Biochemistry

Dr. Margaret Phillips
Dr. Margaret Phillips

By Remekca Owens

Dr. Margaret Phillips, Professor of Pharmacology, has been named the new Chair of the Department of Biochemistry. Only the sixth chair in the Department’s history, Dr. Phillips has been a UT Southwestern Medical Center faculty member since 1992.

“I am deeply honored to follow in the footsteps of the formidable biochemists who led the Department of Biochemistry before me,” said Dr. Phillips. “The Department is uniquely placed within the University for its focus on the interface between Biochemistry and Chemistry – both areas that coincide with my research interests. I am excited at the opportunity of working with the outstanding faculty in the Department as we continue our mission of research and training excellence and as we begin to recruit new faculty in the coming years.”

During her UT Southwestern tenure, Dr. Phillips has conducted groundbreaking research that recently yielded a treatment that kills drug-resistant malaria parasites and is now in Phase II clinical development. Her research focuses on identifying and characterizing vulnerable metabolic pathways in parasitic protozoa with the goal of developing new drugs for malaria and for another neglected tropical disease, African sleeping sickness. The new drug – DSM265 – kills drug-resistant malaria parasites in the blood and liver by targeting their ability to replicate.

“For me personally, the opportunity to see my research potentially impact patients is the most rewarding experience of my career,” Dr. Phillips said. “If, in the end, the drug receives FDA approval, it will be a major accomplishment, and UT Southwestern will have contributed to the prevention of a dreaded, often deadly disease.”

While the disease was eradicated in the United States in 1951, malaria remains one of the world’s major infectious disease killers. Transmitted through mosquitoes, it claims nearly 450,000 lives worldwide each year and many of its victims are pregnant women and children under the age of 5. Nearly 200 million cases are reported annually, and about 3 billion people are at risk of malaria in 97 countries.

“Dr. Phillips has emerged as one of the leading authorities on drug development for the treatment of parasitic diseases,” said Dr. J. Gregory Fitz, Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, Provost, and Dean of UT Southwestern Medical School. “Through these efforts, she has worked closely with colleagues in the Department of Biochemistry using high-throughput screening and chemical optimization to develop a new and highly potent anti-malarial compound, now in clinical trials, as well as other anti-parasitic agents. We look forward to her continuing this work, and are delighted to announce that she has been selected as the Department’s new chair.”

Previous Biochemistry chairs are Dr. Herbert Tidwell, Dr. Ron Estabrook, Dr. Joseph Sambrook, interim chair Dr. Jack Johnson, and Dr. Steven McKnight.

In her new appointment, Dr. Phillips will hold the Sam G. Winstead and F. Andrew Bell Distinguished Chair in Biochemistry, and will direct the Virginia Lazenby O’Hara Fund for Research in Biochemistry as well as the Sara and Frank McKnight Fund for Research in Biochemistry.

Throughout her esteemed career, Dr. Phillip has received the 1995 New Investigator Award, the 1999 Scholar Award in Molecular Parasitology from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, the 1996 American Heart Association Established Investigator Award, and an NIH-NIAID Merit Award in 2009. In 2010, her research team won the Medicines for Malaria Venture’s Project of the Year award for their efforts to discover DSM265.

Dr. Phillips earned her bachelor of science in biochemistry from the University of California, Davis, in 1981 and her Ph.D. in pharmaceutical chemistry from the University of California, San Francisco, in 1988. She has published 94 articles in scientific journals, 20 book chapters or review articles, and currently serves as an associate editor of the journal Plos Pathogens.

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Dr. Fitz holds the Nadine and Tom Craddick Distinguished Chair in Medical Science, and the Atticus James Gill, M.D. Chair in Medical Science