BrianSuzukiResearch Associate, UCSD

Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences

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I have been working in drug discovery in various areas for over 17 years. The company I used to work for specialized in AAV (Adeno-Associated- Virus) gene-therapy for Parkinson's disease and hemophilia then redirected it's effort into small molecule therapy for neuropathic pain. Then in 2009, I joined Dr. McKerow's lab at UCSF to work with Neglected Tropical Diseases, such as schistosomiasis and lymphatic filariasis. Here at UCSD, my main area of research is in identifying new chemical entities (synthetic and natural products) or re-purposing existing drugs for anti-parasite therapy for schistosomiasis and hookworm under Dr. Caffrey. 

PUBLICATIONS

Cysteine and Aspartyl Proteases Contribute to Protein Digestion in the Gut of Freshwater Planaria. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2016 Aug;10(8):e0004893. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0004893. Goupil LS, Ivry SL, Hsieh I, Suzuki BM, Craik CS, O'Donoghue AJ, McKerrow JH.

Odanacatib, a Cathepsin K Cysteine Protease Inhibitor, Kills Hookworm In Vivo. Pharmaceuticals (Basel). 2016 Jul 4;9(3). pii: E39. doi: 10.3390/ph9030039. Vermeire JJ, Suzuki BM, Caffrey CR.

Structure-Bioactivity Relationship for Benzimidazole Thiophene Inhibitors of Polo-Like Kinase 1 (PLK1), a Potential Drug Target in Schistosoma mansoni. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2016 Jan;10(1):e0004356. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0004356. Long T, Neitz RJ, Beasley R, Kalyanaraman C, Suzuki BM, Jacobson MP, Dissous C, McKerrow JH, Drewry DH, Zuercher WJ, Singh R, Caffrey CR.

Excretion/secretion products from Schistosoma mansoni adults, eggs and schistosomula have unique peptidase specificity profiles. Biochimie. 2016 Mar;122:99-109. doi: 10.1016/j.biochi.2015.09.025. Epub 2015 Sep 26. Dvořák J, Fajtová P, Ulrychová L, Leontovyč A, Rojo-Arreola L, Suzuki BM, Horn M, Mareš M, Craik CS, Caffrey CR, O'Donoghue AJ.

Synthesis of a sugar-based thiosemicarbazone series and structure-activity relationship versus the parasite cysteine proteases rhodesain, cruzain, and Schistosoma mansoni cathepsin B1. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2015 May;59(5):2666-77. doi: 10.1128/AAC.04601-14. Epub 2015 Feb 23. Fonseca NC, da Cruz LF, da Silva Villela F, do Nascimento Pereira GA, de Siqueira-Neto JL, Kellar D, Suzuki BM, Ray D, de Souza TB, Alves RJ, Sales Júnior PA, Romanha AJ, Murta SM, McKerrow JH, Caffrey CR, de Oliveira RB, Ferreira RS.

The QDREC web server: determining dose-response characteristics of complex macroparasites in phenotypic drug screens. Bioinformatics. 2015 May 1;31(9):1515-8. doi: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btu831. Epub 2014 Dec 24. Asarnow D, Rojo-Arreola L, Suzuki BM, Caffrey CR, Singh R.

Chemical and genetic validation of the statin drug target to treat the helminth disease, schistosomiasis. PLoS One. 2014;9(1):e87594. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0087594. Rojo-Arreola L, Long T, Asarnow D, Suzuki BM, Singh R, Caffrey CR.

Quantification and clustering of phenotypic screening data using time-series analysis for chemotherapy of schistosomiasis. BMC Genomics. 2012;13 Suppl 1:S4. doi: 10.1186/1471-2164-13-S1-S4. Epub 2012 Jan 17. Lee H, Moody-Davis A, Saha U, Suzuki BM, Asarnow D, Chen S, Arkin M, Caffrey CR, Singh R.